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About Blue Cross of California
Blue Cross of California was founded in 1937. Over 6.8 million Californians are members of Blue Cross and its affiliates. It is a subsidiary of Wellpoint Health Networks, one of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies in the United States.
Offering many Blue Cross Blue Shield Association insurance policies, Blue Cross of California health insurance has a significant number of health plans: HMO, PPO, EPO, Health Savings Account (H.S.A.) compatible plans for individuals, small groups, large groups, Medi-Cal enrollees, and seniors.
Blue Cross constantly changes and enhances its plans to make them affordable while maintaining quality health care. Headquartered in Newbury Park, California, it has offices throughout the state and employs nearly 6,500 people.
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Business Approach
Blue Cross of California's business approach is to provide consumers with choice. In an effort to provide excellent customer service, Blue Cross is organized by customer segment (e.g., individual, small group, large group, seniors, etc.) rather than by product type (HMO, PPO, etc.) This organizational arrangement allows them to offer a large selection of Blue Cross insurance products. In addition to focusing on consumers, Blue Cross of California works hard to be an ally with doctors, hospitals and other professionals in the health care field. The combination of consumer choice and medical provider partnerships, allows them to offer low cost health insurance to California residents.
Blue Cross has extensive technical, financial and professional expertise so that it can offer access to affordable health care services. Members are empowered by the health care information the Company provides. Knowledge and access to health care enable their members to cost effectively purchase health care services. In this way Blue Cross is a "health care financing" organization. It is also the largest member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
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Large Group Division Blue Cross' Large Group Division serves employers with 51 to 500,000 employees and currently provides health insurance coverage to more than 3.8 million people. The Large Group Division is separated into three departments: key accounts (51-250 employees); major accounts (251-2,000 employees); and, special accounts (2,001 and more employees.)
The Large Group Division also includes Blue Cross of California's public entities department that serves education and local, state, and national governments, including the Federal Employees Plan and Federal Employees HMO plan.
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Individual and Small Group Division Blue Cross of California's Individual and Small Group Division provides coverage to more than 1.6 million members. Small group employers have 50 or fewer employees. Blue Cross has a very large PPO provider network and their plans are very competitively priced. So, you should be able to find the doctors you want to visit in the Blue Cross PPO network. They have recently introduced the Right Plan 40 with and without prescription medicine. These have been very popular plans because of their low premiums and because the plans have no deductible
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Seniors Blue Cross has many Medicare supplemental plans for seniors. The Company is expanding its offerings to seniors to accommodate the baby boom population which will be maturing soon. The Blue Cross Smart Choice and Smart Choice Plus Medicare Supplemental policies are very popular. These are high deductible Plan F Medicare supplements. The plans offer generic prescription medicine as well as medical services. The plans have a very low monthly premium and, because they wrap around Medicare, there is very little financial exposure for those enrolled in the plans.
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State Sponsored Programs California Blue Cross health insurance provides services for many programs sponsored by the State of California. With 811,000 Medi-Cal (Medicaid) members and more than 244,000 children in the Healthy Families Program, it is the largest health plan provider for state sponsored plans in California. Blue Cross also participates in the Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) program and the Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) which are also California state sponsored plans.
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Specialty Products Blue Cross of California also has non-health insurance products including disability, life, vision, dental and long term care insurance, as well as COBRA administration, behavioral health, flexible spending accounts. In addition, large employers which self-insure their health care expenses often contract with them for pharmacy benefit management and utilization management.
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HealthCare Quality Assurance Blue Cross of California strives to provide affordable high quality medical care at the lowest price possible. The Company's Healthcare Quality Assurance Division coordinates health care management and medical policy matters. This division seeks to improve business operations by assessing, recognizing and promoting quality health care. The division works closely with network doctors and hospitals to improve quality. They work to reduce administrative costs and look to simplify administration - often by using technology to electronically deliver health care information. The Healthcare Quality Assurance Division has many programs to share information with medical care providers which helps them make the best medical decisions for patients.
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Networks Blue Cross of California has extensive networks of health care professionals and facilities. Blue Cross seeks to work with physicians, hospitals clinicians, laboratories and others to combine every aspect of health care into one efficient organization. Accordingly, within a single company, health care financing and service delivery are well integrated. Their health care network includes about 465 hospitals and more than 46,000 physicians -making it one of the largest networks in the state of California.
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California Products & Services
Blue Cross of California offers a wide range of health insurance products and services. These include health maintenance organizations (HMO), point of service (POS) arrangements, preferred provider organizations (PPO), and exclusive provider organizations (EPO). Blue Cross Insurance also offers dental, life, vision, long term care, and senior plans. Employers and individuals benefit from the combination of all of these products in one company - as all products are combined onto one bill. In addition, their integrated provider networks take a comprehensive approach to controlling costs and managing the total health status of patients. This promotes a relationship with Blue Cross of California's customers as a trusted partner.
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