The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a corporation of 39 companies based on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield community. They have an enviable record of serving millions of high-class families with affordable health insurance. BCBS brands are recognized and are one of the leaders in the health insurance industry. They are the pioneers and largest families of health benefits companies with more than 800 employees. Their health coverage is widespread and available in all 50 states, in the District of Columbia and in Puerto Rico. Due to their large-scale operations, almost all hospitals and almost 80% of doctors are infected with BCBS.
BCBS provides a range of health insurance services for large corporations, small and medium businesses, and even individuals. BCBS is developing rapidly and today is registered in about 175 countries. Based in Chicago, Illinois, BCBS was the result of the merger of the Blue Cross Association and the National Blue Shield Association in 1982. Before the historic merger, the two companies that were established at about the same time in two different parts of the United States were leaders in the field of health insurance. The evolution and development of the concept of a managed healthcare system in the United States is great, if not exclusively, because of the plans of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
In 1939, the Chicago American Hospital Association (AHA) was the first to use the Blue Cross as a symbol to show that healthcare plans across the country meet certain established standards. AHA continued to use this now edited symbol until the Blue Cross Association was founded in 1960. Meanwhile
Blue Shield's first official plan was founded in California in 1939. It was in 1948 that the symbol was unofficially adopted by the Plans for Associated Medical Services, which was later renamed the National Association of Planets Blue Shield.
Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance companies offer insurance plans under both or both brands. The insurers of Blue Cross-Blue Shield offer in some form medical insurance in practice every state in the USA. They provide group coverage to government officials as well as employees of the US federal government as part of a nationwide Federal Health Care Pension Plan (FEHBP) program created by the association on their behalf.
Traditionally, the symbol “Blue Cross” was used for inpatient treatment, and the “Blue Shield” was used for medical coverage. But today, both organizations have become homogeneous, and the dichotomy exists only in eastern Pennsylvania. Otherwise, there is only one insurer in the country.
brands in all places ... Both brand names are used by both associations and its member insurers, although some members prefer one form or another.
14-State WellPoint is the largest member of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield, and is a public limited company. Other well-known multistate organizations are CareFirst in Mid-Atlantic and The Regence Group in the Northwest Pacific.
There is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Foundation, which is a non-profit association. The Foundation is a centralized body that coordinates multinational research of medical services at multiple sites.
The Foundation provides affordable services and contributes to the public good, with a special focus on population-based research as an effective way to influence health outcomes, health policies and the quality and delivery of health services. The Foundation works in tandem with many academic institutions and government agencies, and the Foundation promotes national research that provides solutions to relevant health issues.
