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Blue Cross/Blue Shield has been helping Americans receive affordable healthcare for decades. Without its existence, millions of hard-working American citizens would not receive the kind of care and treatment they deserve, especially after decades of paying taxes and helping to grow this great and prosperous nation.

Like many traditional socially-centered organizations, Blue Cross/Blue Shield has embraced the new technologies developed in recent years. In an effort to provide better service to Blue Cross/Blue Shield members, the organization has enhanced its website and now offers more services for people to use.

HealthIssues.com is one of the new online features now available at Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Surfers can access useful newsletters from the past year and the current one so that they may stay current with potential health issues and ways of dealing with them. The service can be initiated and terminated at any time. While active, members will receive a newsletter via e-mail every month with a host of useful information that is of vital importance to anyone concerned about their health. Health issues such as the avian flu epidemic sweeping Asia are just some of the hot topics covered in newsletters.

One of the other major improvements to the online website for Blue Cross/Blue Shield has to do with customer service. What was once formerly known as the 'Contact Us' portion of the website has been changed to 'Customer Service'. The enhancements to this section were made primarily due to overwhelming demand by Blue Cross/Blue Shield members.

One of the time-saving and beneficial advantages offered by the new service is to allow members to change the spelling of their name on official Blue Cross/Blue Shield documentation. What once was a time consuming task bogged down by red tape, this simple but essential service speeds up the correction of mistakes and ensures continuation of benefits without worry of interruption. The new online service also allows people to change date-of-birth and social security information as well.

The timely and useful enhancements to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield customer service section also allow members to access information about their individual enrollment plans to check for accuracy and updates to coverage. Also, at times when the service area for a local Plan is not available, members may access records without leaving the comfort of their own home.

Unfortunately, members cannot access their information at all times of the day or night. Access is only permitted at present on Monday thru Saturday, 7 a.m. ' 9 p.m., EST. But, for persons that utilize the services during these hours, any changes made to their personal information will be posted and applied during the next business day. Plans are currently in the works to expand hours of access so that the website becomes even more convenient and useful to members.

Although not all transactions can be conducted online, the truth is that the new additions to the online services offered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield have made the entire process far more accessible and convenient for members. The newsletter provides members with critical healthcare information while the enhancements to customer service reduce waiting time and increase the ease of use for services.