The Story Behind Blue Cross Blue Shield

Developed in 1929 by a man named Justin Ford Kimball, Blue Cross was an association of health insurance plans. It was in 1982, after Blue Cross had originally lost its affiliation with the American Hospital Association, that they merged with National Association of Blue Shield Plans to form Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Technically, Blue Cross Blue Shield is a trade association for a series of locally operated plans. There are 40 local member companies of Blue Cross Blue Shiled that operate under the umbrella. In addition, the company, or rather its local affiliates, act as Social Security administrators. Many would say, in fact, that managed health care in the United States is very closely linked to the Blue Cross Blue Shield design.

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s operating headquarters are located in Chicago Illinois and in Washington D.C. The company employs about 850 people in its headquarters. The Member Blue Plans part of the company employs over 15,000 people, making it one of the 20 largest employers in the United States.

About a third of all Americans, including those in Puerto Rico, or 93 million Americans, are being provided health care from Blue Cross Blue Shield. Their insurance plans reach a variety of people through a variety of products including those for small business, large corporations, or private individuals.

Since the inception of Medicare by the US government in 1965, Blue Cross Blue Shield has helped to process the claims and payments. In 2003, in fact, the company’s Medicare contractors processed about 90 percent of the Medicare claims from hospitals and about 72 percent of those from physicians and practitioners in the health field.

The Blue Card Program is one that links healthcare providers and each individual Blue Plan in the country through one electronic network for both claims processing and reimbursement. This allows them to serve large nationally known corporations like Microsoft, Xerox, and UPS. Over half of the fortune 500 companies are covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

The company also includes a very comprehensive website. There, you can find out more about the history of the company, locations for the 40 national member companies that are in line with Blue Card Program, and you can also look up doctors and hospitals on the Blue Card Program. There is contacts information and even a very comprehensive frequently asked questions page that is helpful. Press releases are easy to find, as is the glossary, which is very helpful if you are unfamiliar with insurance and health care related vocabulary. Overall, the website is easy to navigate, easy to read, and most importantly it is comprehensive and helpful.

If you are wondering about healthcare options, then you should at the very least know who Blue Cross Blue Shield is. Through the information available here or at there website, you will be able to make educated decisions on whether or not their healthcare is right for you or your company.

Christopher M. Luck has over 15 years experience in working in upper management at Blue Cross Blue Sheildand is now offering his free professional Health Advice to the public. If you are at all interested in Christopher's health insurance advice, tips, or secrets, you can visit his health insurance blog.

Enhanced Online Features at Blue Cross Blue Shield Help You

Blue Cross/Blue Shield has been helping Americans receive affordable healthcare for decades. Without its existence, millions of hard-working American citizens would not receive the kind of care and treatment they deserve, especially after decades of paying taxes and helping to grow this great and prosperous nation.

Like many traditional socially-centered organizations, Blue Cross/Blue Shield has embraced the new technologies developed in recent years. In an effort to provide better service to Blue Cross/Blue Shield members, the organization has enhanced its website and now offers more services for people to use.

HealthIssues.com is one of the new online features now available at Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Surfers can access useful newsletters from the past year and the current one so that they may stay current with potential health issues and ways of dealing with them. The service can be initiated and terminated at any time. While active, members will receive a newsletter via e-mail every month with a host of useful information that is of vital importance to anyone concerned about their health. Health issues such as the avian flu epidemic sweeping Asia are just some of the hot topics covered in newsletters.

One of the other major improvements to the online website for Blue Cross/Blue Shield has to do with customer service. What was once formerly known as the “Contact Us” portion of the website has been changed to “Customer Service”. The enhancements to this section were made primarily due to overwhelming demand by Blue Cross/Blue Shield members.

One of the time-saving and beneficial advantages offered by the new service is to allow members to change the spelling of their name on official Blue Cross/Blue Shield documentation. What once was a time consuming task bogged down by red tape, this simple but essential service speeds up the correction of mistakes and ensures continuation of benefits without worry of interruption. The new online service also allows people to change date-of-birth and social security information as well.

The timely and useful enhancements to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield customer service section also allow members to access information about their individual enrollment plans to check for accuracy and updates to coverage. Also, at times when the service area for a local Plan is not available, members may access records without leaving the comfort of their own home.

Unfortunately, members cannot access their information at all times of the day or night. Access is only permitted at present on Monday thru Saturday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m., EST. But, for persons that utilize the services during these hours, any changes made to their personal information will be posted and applied during the next business day. Plans are currently in the works to expand hours of access so that the website becomes even more convenient and useful to members.

Although not all transactions can be conducted online, the truth is that the new additions to the online services offered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield have made the entire process far more accessible and convenient for members. The newsletter provides members with critical healthcare information while the enhancements to customer service reduce waiting time and increase the ease of use for services.

For more information on Blue Cross Blue Shield, visit http://www.bluecrossblueshieldinfo.com.

How The Blue Cross Works

The Blue Cross is, in actuality, not a single company, but is instead a large conglomeration of companies that make up the Blue Cross Group of companies. These businesses that make up the Blue Cross include the leading companies with the highest financial stability in providing several medical services, such as travel insurance, personal accident insurance, and medical insurance, as well as Third Party Administered Plans for healthcare services, and many more similar products.

The grouping of companies under the Blue Cross has a solid experience of over fifty years. They pride themselves on their ability to maintain a steady level of excellence, while still giving all of their many clients comprehensive and practical services.

The commitment of Blue Cross, according to their own website, is to continually improve their own customer service, to ensure that the services that they provide their customers are always getting better. With the track record worthy of boasting, and a competent support staff, they feel confident that they are always equipped to provide customers will immediate service at high levels at any given time.

This level of service is especially important in the health industry. Certainly, we all expect good customer service from any company with which we do business, but with the utter basic importance of proper health services, companies like the Blue Cross allow us a bit more security and peace of mind in a world that seems to have lost a lot of its own stability and comfort. It is exactly that kind of assurance that the Blue Cross aims to give its clients.

Furthermore, the Blue Cross excels in its ability to provide a multitude of services at a high level, instead of just one. This convenience is important, especially when it comes to your health. When you are in need of health services, there is nothing more trying than having to deal with several different companies, all with their different requirements, forms, and levels of service. Blue Cross gives you everything in once place, with a standard level of high service, and the assurance that they’re easy to reach and will always be there when you need them.

Blue Cross has become the envy of the health industry, with its proud history, stable present, and bright future. It is an example of what proper health care services should look like in today’s level of quality and technology. It is refreshing to know that a company such as Blue Cross is out there to take care of millions throughout North America.

Richard Cussons is a prolific and diverse writer. You will find out more about The Blue Cross at Blue Cross Resources.

Blue Cross Insurance - Providing Health Insurance For One Third Of All Americans

Blue Cross insurance was the creation of Justin Ford Kimball who, in 1929, devised a plan to provide hospital care for school teachers in Dallas. The plan provided teachers with cover for up to twenty one days in hospitalization each year for a premium of six dollars.

From these humble beginnings the plan spread, first throughout Dallas and other areas of Texas and then nationwide, providing cover for employees across an ever widening range of employment.

Just ten years after it was born the Blue Cross symbol was adopted by the American Hospital Association for plans that met certain standards and this formal recognition provided Blue Cross insurance with a springboard for further growth.

In 1960 the growth in popularity of Blue Cross was such that the Blue Cross Association superseded the American Hospital Association commission and some twelve years later severed all ties with the commission.

Finally, in 1982, the Blue Cross Association merged with the National Association of Blue Shield Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association we know today was formed.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is in effect a trade association for some thirty eight independent and locally, or regionally, operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans. These together provide cover throughout the United States, as well as in the Canadian province, for millions of Americans (it is estimated that one in three Americans now carry a Blue Cross and Blue Shield card) and makes Blue Cross and Blue Shield the country's largest healthcare provider.

But Blue Cross and Blue Shield does much more than simply provide medical insurance cover on a group and individual basis.

The Association is now also the administrator for Social Security in a large number of states and often provides group cover for state government employees and for employees of the Federal government. As a result, officials within Blue Cross and Blue Shield work closely with government health policy makers at the very top levels of government and the Association plays a significant part in influencing the direction of government health policy.

It is amazing to think that a plan originally devised simply to provide cover for hospital bills for a small group of school teachers in Dallas has now developed not only into a nationwide plan providing cover for just about anything you can imagine from critical illness through long-term care, disability, life cover, dental cover, pharmacy cover and even cover for worldwide travel, but has also spawned an organization that is at the very heart of the healthcare system of the United States.

With such phenomenal growth in the past seventy five years and such a strong position today one can only imagine that Blue Cross and Blue Shield will continue to grow in the years ahead proving yet more and more cover for an ever growing number of customers.

To learn more about Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Blue Cross insurance please visit Blue Cross Insurance Today.