- Blue Shield of California
Infobox_Company
company_name = Blue Shield of California
company_
company_type =not-for-profit
foundation = 1938 (created) 1939 (incorporated)
founder =California Medical Association
location = San Francisco,California
key_people =Bruce Bodaken , "chairman and chief executive"Aliza Lifshitz , "vice chairman"
num_employees = 4,500
industry =healthcare
revenue = profit $8.364 billion USD (2007)
net_income = profit $318 million USD (2007)
homepage = [http://blueshieldca.org/ blueshieldca.org]Blue Shield of California is a
not-for-profit health plan provider founded in 1938 and based in San Francisco,California . The organization serves over 3.2 million health plan members and nearly 59,000 physicians across the statehttps://www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/newsroom/newsroom_06.jhtml] . Blue Shield of California was founded by theCalifornia Medical Association .History
Blue Shield of California, then known as California Physicians' Service, was created by the California Medical Association on December 18, 1938https://www.blueshieldca.com/bsc/newsroom/newsroom_02.jhtml] , and was incorporated on February 2, 1939. The organization began offering coverage on March 6 of that same year. In 1946, the organization was among a founder of the National Association of Blue Shield Plans, which later became the
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association . Today, Blue Shield of California is an independent licensee of the national association.The Blue Shield of California health plan was the first in the nation to offer catastrophic coverage in 1950, provide coverage for a heart transplant in 1984, offer online benefit and enrollment information in 1996, and offer an online enrollment system for agents in 1998. In 2006, the
National Committee for Quality Assurance , commonly referred to as NCQA, recently recognized Blue Shield as an "excellent" health plan for service and clinical quality.http://hprc.ncqa.org/resultdetails.asp?Plan=Blue+Shield+of+California&PL=Commercial&RP=HMO%2FPOS+Combined&ID=163&ST=MCO&txtPageNo=1&From=R]Controversy
In 2006, Blue Shield agreed to a $6.5 million settlement relating to its alleged modifying of the
risk tier structure of its individual and family health care plans. In 2008, the organization agreed to a settlement with the California Department of Managed Health Care to resolve allegations of improperrescission of individual health plan coverage. Blue Shield agreed to pay $3 million as a penalty. The organization reinstated coverage to 450 members whose plans had been cancelled and agreed to provide compensation for any medical debts incurred by these policyholders due to the rescission. [cite news|url=http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDBLyPh2QHiIO7azoVYF9Q2TVRSwD9203RSG2|title=2 health insurers to pay $13M to Calif. regulators|publisher=AP/Google|date=2008-07-18 |accessdate-2008-07-18]References
External links
* [http://blueshieldca.org Blue Shield of California]
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