BlueCross BlueShield

Blue Cross redirects here. For other uses, see Blue Cross (disambiguation).

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is the national trade organization that links 40 independent regional health insurance companies in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. Based in Chicago, Illinois, it was formed in the 1982 merger of the Blue Cross Association and the National Association of Blue Shield Plans. Both organizations trace their histories to health plans that were created around the same time in two different parts of the U.S. The evolution of managed health care in the United States is intimately linked to the designs of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.

History

In 1929, Justin Ford Kimball became vice president of Baylor University in Dallas, Texas. An experienced administrator, he headed the College of Medicine, School of Nursing, College of Dentistry, and the university hospital. Soon after taking the job, he developed a health plan that guaranteed teachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year. The plan was extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and similar plans began to spread nationally.

The cross symbol was first used in a 1934 advertisement for the Hospital Service Association, today known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Company secretary E.A. van Steenwyk had Viennese artist Joseph Binder create a poster that included a blue Greek cross. Van Steenwyk continued to use the symbol to identify his company's health plans, and the Blue Cross began to be used in other parts of the country.

In 1939, the Chicago-based American Hospital Association began using the Blue Cross symbol to signify that health plans across the country met certain standards. The AHA continued to administrate the use of the symbol until the Blue Cross Association was founded in 1960. The two organizations remained affiliated until 1972.

Another health plan gained popularity in the lumber and mining camps of the Pacific Northwest around the same time that Kimball created his plan. These would provide medical care by paying monthly fees to medical service bureaus composed of groups of physicians. The shield symbol was created in Buffalo, New York by Carl Metzger in 1939, and the the first official Blue Shield plan was founded in California that same year. In 1948 the symbol was informally adopted by nine plans called the Associated Medical Care Plan, and was later renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.

Current organization

Theoretically, Blue Cross-Blue Shield operations are considered to occur via a series of administratively independent franchises offering insurance plans within defined regions. Blue Cross-Blue Shield offers some form of health insurance coverage in every US state and Canadian province. They also act as administrators of Social Security in many states or regions of the U.S., and regularly can be found providing group coverage to state government employees, as well as the U.S. Federal government. Thus a strong bond exists between the Blue Cross-Blue Shield entities and health-insurance policy-making bodies at the highest levels of government in the United States.

Some of the state plans have been merged to achieve economies of scale. Many plans are administered by non-profit organizations, while others are for-profit companies. The 13-state WellPoint, Inc. is the largest Blue Cross-Blue Shield member, and is a publicly-traded company. Other multi-state organizations include CareFirst in the Mid-Atlantic and The Regence Group in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2003, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association took in US$182.7 billion in revenue.

List of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies

• Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Missouri)
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Western New York
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Dakota
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Tennessee
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming
• Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania
• Blue Shield of California
• Blue Shield of Northeastern New York
• Canadian Association of Blue Cross Plans
• Capital Blue Cross (Pennsylvania)
• CareFirst
  • Delaware (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Delaware)
  • District of Columbia
  • Maryland
• La Cruz Azul de Puerto Rico
• Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield (New York)
• Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield (New York)
• Hawaii Medical Services Association
• Highmark Blue Shield (Pennsylvania)
• Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield (Pennsylvania)
• Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield
  • New Jersey
• Independence Blue Cross (Pennsylvania)
• Mountain State Blue Cross and Blue Shield (West Virginia)
• Premera Blue Cross
  • Alaska
  • Washington
• The Regence Group
  • Idaho (Blue Shield of Idaho)
  • Oregon (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oregon)
  • Utah (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Utah)
  • Washington (Blue Shield of Washington)
• Triple-S (Puerto Rico)
• Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield
  • Iowa
  • South Dakota
• WellPoint
  • California (Blue Cross of California)
  • Colorado (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Connecticut (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Indiana
  • Kentucky (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Missouri (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri)
  • Maine (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Nevada (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • New Hampshire (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Ohio (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Virginia (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield)
  • Wisconsin (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wisconsin)

See also

• Health insurance
• Health maintenance organization

External links

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association

References

• Kimball, Justin Ford. The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.