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An Overview
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Founded in 1948, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, an Independent Licensee of
the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is the largest health insurer in Arkansas.
Arkansas Blue Cross and its family of affiliated companies have approximately 2,500 employees.
Not-For-Profit Organization
Arkansas Blue Cross differs from commercial insurers in several ways. Arkansas Blue
Cross is a not-for-profit mutual insurance company. That means that nearly all the
money we collect as premium is paid out in benefits for customers — on the
average, nearly 85 cents of every dollar. The remainder — about 15 cents of
every dollar — is used for operating expenses and reserve funds, which we
are required by law to maintain.
As a not-for-profit, mutual insurance company, Arkansas Blue Cross is owned by its
policyholders, not by stockholders. This means that premium dollars are used solely
to pay claims and administrative costs, not to pay stock dividends. Any excess funds
are held in reserve for payment of future claims. Arkansas Blue Cross must maintain
a fiscal balance between premium income and benefits paid to ensure that we have
the ability to continue to offer these products and to pay policyholder claims in
the future.
Locations
The main office of Arkansas Blue Cross is located at 601 S. Gaines Street
in downtown Little Rock.
Arkansas Blue Cross operates full-service regional offices serving seven
designated geographic areas of the state. The Regional Offices, headquartered in
Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff and Texarkana,
offer sales, customer service, medical management and provider relations services
to counties in their parts of the state.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Affiliation
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a member of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association. This means Arkansas Blue Cross has licenses from the Blue Cross and
Blue Shield Association to offer health insurance benefits and related services
under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and service marks in the state of Arkansas.
As a Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association member Plan, Arkansas Blue Cross is
managed and controlled by its own community-based Board of Directors, which must
contain a majority of “public members.” Public members are people from the community
who are not employed in the health-care industry. Consequently, the Blue Cross and
Blue Shield Plans have a strong commitment to their local communities and customers
that is not necessarily shared by commercial insurance companies.
Neither the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor the other member Plans of
the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association act as guarantors of the financial obligations
of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. However, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield
and the other member Plans in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are subject
to uniform financial standards, established by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association,
that are intended to foster a system in which each member Plan maintains adequate
financial resources to meet its obligations to its customers.
National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Affiliation
In 1993, Arkansas Blue Cross joined with 11 of the nation’s leading health care
companies to form the NIHCM. The NIHCM is a non-profit organization based in Washington,
D.C., that was established to: 1) sponsor high-quality, non-partisan research of
health care issues; 2) act as a clearinghouse for research on health care management
and state managed care data; and 3) promote innovation to continuously improve the
health care system.
History of Arkansas Blue Cross
After World War II, Arkansas' health-care system found itself at a turning point.
In April 1946, two major organizations (the Arkansas Medical Society and the Arkansas
Hospital Association) almost simultaneously began looking into the possibility of
starting a statewide hospital and medical insurance program—an idea that was rapidly
taking root in other parts of the nation.
The two groups quickly discovered they were investigating the same concept, so they
decided to join forces. In June 1946, a joint committee took a fact-finding trip
to Chicago and met with officials with the national Blue Cross Commission and other
health-care leaders.
After much deliberation about whether the program should be commercial or nonprofit
in nature, the group finally decided to solicit proposals from the 114 carriers
licensed to write hospital and surgical coverage in Arkansas. Only six responded,
but they all felt the proposed coverage was far too liberal. The group asked for
suggestions from the bidders. None were accepted.
The group eventually settled on a program offered by the John Marshall Co. (a new
firm formed by individuals from other Blue Cross plans). The company was long on
experience but short on capital, and by 1948, the company was forced to close its
doors.
Because of their commitment to Arkansans who enrolled in the John Marshall plan,
the two groups decided to combine their resources and secure some additional funding
to found a new, nonprofit venture that would adhere to the principles of the Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Commission.
The physicians' group provided a loan of $10,000, the hospital organization contributed
a $14,425 bed-assessment loan, and the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation added a $5,000
loan. And on Dec. 3, 1948, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jack G. McKenzie approved
the articles of incorporation of Arkansas Medical and Hospital Service, Inc., which
eventually became Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
The joint committee hired Jack L. Redheffer of Kansas City as the organization's
first executive director, and the fledgling insurer set up shop in Room 815 of the
Rector Building at Third and Spring streets with just five employees and a lot of
enthusiasm.
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