Blue Cross; Get It Now Or Pay Through The Nose
Blue Cross is a name used by an association of 40 regional
independent health insurance plans throughout the United States,
and also in Canada, where patients can purchase supplemental
insurance to cover expenses not paid for by government health
care. It is an independent, nonprofit membership corporation
providing protection on a service basis against the cost of
hospital care in a limited geographical area. Listings are
provided for each state. Blue Cross plans offer nonprofit
hospital expense prepayment plans designed primarily to provide
benefits for hospitalization coverage, with some restrictions on
the type of accommodations available to the patient. The
insurance carrier is usually a benefit of small and large
groups; individual policies must be carefully reviewed.
These independent membership association operate on a service
basis and provide protection against the soaring costs of
hospital care. Benefit payments are made directly to the
hospital, and benefits vary among various Blue Cross
associations. Blue Cross plans are usually offered on a group
basis. However, individual enrollment is sometimes permitted,
and plans of community enrollment are undertaken in some local
areas.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is based in Chicago
and was formed in 1982 from the 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 Health Management Organizations in America
is closely linked to the development of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Blue Cross was developed by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929 at
Baylor University in Dallas, Texas. The first plan guaranteed
teachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year. The plan was
then extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and then
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. In 1939, the
Chicago-based American Hospital Association first used the Blue
Cross symbol to give its stamp of approval to health plans
across the country which met certain standards. The AHA
continued to administrate the use of the symbol until the Blue
Cross Association was founded in 1960. Both organizations
remained affiliated until 1972.
At the same time Kimball's organization was formed, another
health plan gained popularity in the lumber and mining camps of
the Pacific Northwest. The first of these, Pierce County Medical
Bureau (now known as Regence BlueShield) in Tacoma, Washington,
was founded in 1917 and is now a part of The Regence Group. This
plan provided medical care by a group of physicians for the
payment of monthly fees.
The Blue Shield symbol was created in 1939 by Carl Metzger,
head of the Buffalo Blue Shield Plan ,and combined a serpent
with the U.S. Army Medical Corps insignia. The first official
Blue Shield plan was founded in California that same year. In
1948 the symbol was informally adopted by nine health insurance
organizations called the Associated Medical Care Plans, later
renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.
Over the years, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield healthcare
insurance concepts have become widely popular with Americans.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association was formed in 1982 by
a merger of the Blue Cross Association and the National
Association of Blue Shield Plans.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is America's largest
insurer and managed healthcare provider, covering 93 million
people, nearly a third of all Americans. It is the largest
single processor of Medicare claims, and holds the world's
largest privately underwritten health insurance contract, the
4-million-member Federal Employee Program (FEP). Combined
revenue of Blue Cross/Blue Shield exceeded $230 billion in 2004.