NEW PRODUCER PORTAL LAUNCHING SEPTEMBER 30 - ACTION REQUIRED

Please forward this alert to your sub-agents. All producers who use the portal will be impacted.

Over the last 18 months, our IT team has been working to create an online environment to serve as a resource for you in the face of health care reform. Due to some recent changes in health care reform laws, our team has been working around the clock to redesign our producer portal, to be ready for your use as of Oct. 1. This redesign utilizes user-friendly navigation to allow easy access to quoting, renewals, training and more.

The portal launches on Sept. 30, entirely replacing the current portal. There is a planned system outage from the evening of Sept. 27 through Sept. 29. Thus, if you need to access the system before Sept. 30, please do so before the evening of Sept. 27. We realize this is the weekend before health care reform open enrollment begins, but we want to take the necessary steps to ensure this portal is ready for your use.

WHAT IS CHANGING?

Access

www.highmarkblueshield.com-you can still access the portal through this link. On and after Sept. 30, you can select "Producer Access" from the bottom of the page to get to the producer portal.
producer.highmark.com- Active on Sept. 30 (please do not use this link until Sept. 30), this link is the quickest way to access the producer portal. You may want to save this to your Favorites for quick access in the future.

Login Information

If you have a login ID to the current portal, it will be changing. You will need to use your new login ID as of Sept. 30. Please see below to determine what your new login ID will be.

If your current login ID...

Begins with AGT-your new login ID begins with AGN instead. For example, if your current login ID is AGT12345A, your login will be converted to AGN12345A.
Does not begin with AGT but has fewer than 10 characters-add an A to the end of your login ID. For example, if your current login ID is PRODCR123, your login will be converted to PRODCR123A.
Does not begin with AGT but has 10 characters-the last character in your login ID will be changed to a 1. For example, if your current login ID is 1234567890, your login will be converted to 1234567891.

Please log in as soon as possible (after Sept. 30), to change your password. The temporary password for your new login ID is highmark1, but you will need change it by Nov. 1 . If your temporary password is not updated by Nov. 1, the password will be deactivated and you will need to reset your password by selecting "Forgot username or password" within the login box and then choosing "Agency Admin" to begin the reset process.

Products

Small Group-You can run renewals or quote 2013 products or new health care reform products.
Individual-You can quote products for effective dates prior to Jan. 1 in the portal, or new health care reform products using our spreadsheet tool under the Resources tab.
Medicare -You will be able to review and select Medicare products after Oct. 1.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

Submit any saved applications before Sept. 27. Applications that are not submitted before the evening of Sept. 27 will be lost. Please note: you will not be able to view applications submitted before Sept. 27 in the new portal; if you need a status update on these, you can view the status in your daily reports (may need to request from your general agent).
Save to your computer any books of business you want to keep. All books of business will be cleared from the system the evening of Sept. 27; however, you can re-run them after Sept. 30.
Reset your portal password before Nov. 1.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?

Medicare products are not available for review and selecting from the evening of Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.
If you forgot your password, select "Agency Admin" (not "Producer/Agent") under "Forgot username or password."
Training materials on the new portal are under development, and will be distributed to producers upon completion. They will also be available on the new portal, in the training section of the Resources tab.