Blue Cross; Get It Now Or Pay Through The Nose

Blue Cross is a name used by an association of 40 regionalindependent health insurance plans throughout the United States,and also in Canada, where patients can purchase supplementalinsurance to cover expenses not paid for by government healthcare. It is an independent, nonprofit membership corporationproviding protection on a service basis against the cost ofhospital care in a limited geographical area. Listings areprovided for each state. Blue Cross plans offer nonprofithospital expense prepayment plans designed primarily to providebenefits for hospitalization coverage, with some restrictions onthe type of accommodations available to the patient. Theinsurance carrier is usually a benefit of small and largegroups; individual policies must be carefully reviewed.These independent membership association operate on a servicebasis and provide protection against the soaring costs ofhospital care. Benefit payments are made directly to thehospital, and benefits vary among various Blue Crossassociations. Blue Cross plans are usually offered on a groupbasis. However, individual enrollment is sometimes permitted,and plans of community enrollment are undertaken in some localareas.The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is based in Chicagoand was formed in 1982 from the merger of the Blue CrossAssociation and the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.Both organizations trace their histories to health plans thatwere created around the same time in two different parts of theU.S. The evolution of Health Management Organizations in Americais closely linked to the development of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.Blue Cross was developed by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929 atBaylor University in Dallas, Texas. The first plan guaranteedteachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year. The plan wasthen extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and thennationally. The cross symbol was first used in a 1934advertisement for the Hospital Service Association, today knownas Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. In 1939, theChicago-based American Hospital Association first used the BlueCross symbol to give its stamp of approval to health plansacross the country which met certain standards. The AHAcontinued to administrate the use of the symbol until the BlueCross Association was founded in 1960. Both organizationsremained affiliated until 1972.At the same time Kimball's organization was formed, anotherhealth plan gained popularity in the lumber and mining camps ofthe Pacific Northwest. The first of these, Pierce County MedicalBureau (now known as Regence BlueShield) in Tacoma, Washington,was founded in 1917 and is now a part of The Regence Group. Thisplan provided medical care by a group of physicians for thepayment of monthly fees. The Blue Shield symbol was created in 1939 by Carl Metzger,head of the Buffalo Blue Shield Plan ,and combined a serpentwith the U.S. Army Medical Corps insignia. The first officialBlue Shield plan was founded in California that same year. In1948 the symbol was informally adopted by nine health insuranceorganizations called the Associated Medical Care Plans, laterrenamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.Over the years, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield healthcareinsurance concepts have become widely popular with Americans.The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association was formed in 1982 bya merger of the Blue Cross Association and the NationalAssociation of Blue Shield Plans.Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is America's largestinsurer and managed healthcare provider, covering 93 millionpeople, nearly a third of all Americans. It is the largestsingle processor of Medicare claims, and holds the world'slargest privately underwritten health insurance contract, the4-million-member Federal Employee Program (FEP). Combinedrevenue of Blue Cross/Blue Shield exceeded $230 billion in 2004.