Blue Cross Blue Shield

Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) is an association of health insurance services that has been in existence for 75 years. Approximately one-third of Americans have BCBS as their healthcare insurance.

Most Widely Known

Because BCBS has been around for so long, it is perhaps the most widely known of all health insurance programs. The program contracts with more doctors and hospital than any other insurance program in the U.S.

History of Blue Cross Blue Shield

The Blue Cross concept was formed in 1929 by Justin Ford Kimball, to help a group of 1,300 teachers pay for hospital care by paying small fees to the Baylor University Hospital. In the Pacific Northwest, around the same time, mining employers wanted to help their workers who sustained job-related illnesses and injuries, so they made arrangements to pay monthly fees to doctors to help with the bills. From these two programs, Blue Shield was born.

These two programs became the most widely recognized in the U.S. and eventually merged. Beginning with only 1,000 members in 1929, it grew to 3,000 in ten years. Today, numbers range up to nearly 100 million in the U.S. Throughout its history, BCBS has worked closely with labor groups, federal workers, and with the Medicare program, which was initiated in 1966.

The Current Program

The existing program has several distinctive features:

• The Blue Card – allows people to receive services while traveling and to find doctors and health care facilities easily
• The TEC Program – the Technology Evaluation Center is devoted to monitoring medical technology
• WalkingWorks – promotes walking as a form of cost-saving preventative healthcare
• BlueWorld Expat – enables businesspeople abroad to access healthcare worldwide.

The Mission

Blue Cross Blue Shield is working to achieve affordable healthcare through:

• Research


• Education


• Consumer involvement


• Innovation in healthcare products


• Reducing the number of uninsured citizens.

In addition, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has implemented guidelines for dialogue between physicians and the insurance company, to ensure the best possible service for consumers. The Blue System is also engaged actively in protecting consumers through its anti-fraud efforts, which helps to keep overall costs down. The program also believes in community connections—supporting programs such as United Way, PBS health programs, and doing outreach to labor.

Furthermore, the Blue System allows people easy access to information about Medicare and the newly initiated prescription drug program, and to use one's BCBS coverage along with Medicare and prescription drug program to keep healthcare costs affordable.

Commitment to Wellness Programs

BCBS is committed to wellness programs. As such, in addition to the WalkingWorks program, BCBS offers a Personal Path program online, where one can get health information and have dialogue with a physician confidentially, as well as providing a personalized health homepage. There is also a Health Dialogue program online where people can exchange ideas and information and give support when one is facing treatment decisions.

Additional Resources and Functions

BCBS offers an online database with information about transplant programs and services. They are also involved in conducting research related to healthcare policymaking. In short, BCBS is one of the largest, most comprehensive, and influential healthcare insurance delivery systems in the U.S., if not worldwide. BCBS provides an array of choices and services and is evolving as healthcare reaches the forefront on the national political agenda.

By Eve Visconti