Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield unveils new mobile app

Having to sift through your wallet or purse to find your insurance card during a visit to the doctor or hospital emergency room may soon become a memory.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has unveiled an enhanced Wellmark mobile app with new features. Users can connect to myWellmark.com for claims status, coverage details and flex spending accounts. They also can view and email their insurance cards.

That means during a visit to the doctor, paper cards will no longer be necessary.

"We do quite a bit of market analysis with our members," said Brad Hoyt, leader of Wellmark's technology innovation group. "They were telling us that they want access to their particular information. So the things that we brought to them were claims, their benefits and electronic ID card instead of a paper ID card."

Users can use the app to locate a nearby in-network physician, dentist, hospital or other medical facility and talk to a personal health assistant 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In order to ensure patients' data is secure, "everything is encrypted," Hoyt said.

"We validate who the person is before they can get access to the information, whether it's in a web browser or on their phone," he said.

The free application is available in the Google Play and Apple App stores.