Blue Cross Blue Shield: Understanding the National Network

The Blue Cross &Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a national federation of 39 independent healthcare insurance providers operated throughout the USA which provides locally focused insurance in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

History

• BCBSA is the oldest health benefit company in the USA, created in 1929 at Baylor University in Dallas, Texas by Justin Ford Kimball.

Enrollment

• BCBSA began life with 1,300 members enrolled in its healthcare benefit program which grew to over 1 million in just ten years. Currently, over 100 million or 1 in 3 Americans are enrolled in a BCBSA plan.

Coverage

• BCBSA is the largest healthcare benefit provider in the USA with 90% of US hospitals and 80% of US physicians working with the Association to provide healthcare for its members.

Medicare

• BCBSA currently processes the majority of Medicare claims. Since its introduction in 1965, 63.4 million Medicare claims have been processed by the BCBSA. In 2000, BCBSA processed over $163 billion in Medicare claims.

Heart Transplant

• A heart transplant which took place at Stanford University in 1984 (covered by Blue Cross &Blue Shield of California) was the first in the USA to be covered by a healthcare plan. Today, 7 types of transplant are covered by the BCBSA at 60 transplant centers.