![]() ![]() Pierce County physicians organized the first medical service bureau-the Pierce Country Medical Bureau-in Tacoma, Washington, in 1917. The arrangement gave rise to “medical service bureaus,” which brought together physicians to provide this kind of service. Hazards of the job made workers there prone to chronic illnesses as well as serious injuries, so making medical care easily available and accessible was a must.Įmployers made this possible by paying physicians a monthly fee for their medical services. The concept behind this plan was inspired by employers of the mining and lumbar camps located in the Pacific Northwest. While Blue Cross focused on hospital care, Blue Shield was developed as a way of covering physicians’ services. The first official Blue Shield plan emerged in 1939 in California, ten years after Blue Cross was established. Blue Cross ended its ties with AHA in 1972, and in 1973 the AHA seal that appeared along the Blue Cross symbol was replaced by a silhouette of a human figure stylized to symbolize humanity. In 1939, the American Hospital Association (AHA) tapped the Blue Cross symbol as an emblem for all standards-compliant health plans in the United States.īy 1960, however, the Blue Cross Association superseded the AHA commission. ![]() Steenwyk, who was at the time executive secretary of the Hospital Service Association, used the design as an identifying element for the company’s hospital care program and health plans. van Steenwyk commissioned Joseph Binder, a Viennese artist, to create a poster with a solid blue Greek cross painted on it. The origins of this symbol are traced back to 1934, when E.A. The plans became recognized throughout the country by the Blue Cross symbol, which, as one historian put it, “perpetuated itself as a unifying force” (2). More and more plans were introduced in the years that followed, and in 10 years’ time Blue Cross was already covering 3 million individuals (2). ![]() It caught on fast, adopted initially by other Dallas-based employee groups before spreading on a national scale.įrom more 1,300, Blue Cross members reached 35,000 by 1933, during which Blue Cross plans numbered 16 (4). This is widely considered the world’s first-ever prepayment plan in hospital care. ![]() Kimball was vice president of health care facilities at Baylor University in Dallas, Texas, when he came up with a plan that granted teachers 21 days of hospital care access care for a cost of only $6 per year (3). The plan was actually based on a prototype created by Justin Ford Kimball. It was designed to provide prepaid coverage for hospital care services. Undoubtedly both also played important roles in the surge in healthinsurance coverage between 19, during which the segment of the population with coverage increased from less than 10 percent to almost 70 percent (2).īlue Cross was formed first, with its roots dating to 1929. Hospitals and doctors, for their part, lacked the financial resources for certain medical practices, solutions and technologies.īut thanks in large part to Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies, the concept of health insurance was born, benefiting American society in myriad ways.įrom pre-paid group practices where plan members gained access to an array of medical services via a selected network of providers, Blue Cross and Blue Shield paved the way for health insurance as we know it today. It did not exist.Īccess to quality health care was limited, with most ordinary Americans not being able to afford it. With the association’s extensive reach, it’s hard to imagine that a century ago, health insurance was not an option. Member companies have contracts with more than 96 percent of the nation’s hospitals, and over 93 percent of all doctors belong to the BCBSA network (1).Ĭompared to figures posted by other insurers, BCBSA remains unmatched. These two had separate paths of development-paths that intersected when they merged in 1982, forming BCBSA.Ĭurrently, the BCBSA has at least 106 million members across the country (plus its federal territories). One was called the Blue Cross Association, and the other the Association of Blue Shield Plans. It may be known today as the largest and oldest payer group in the United States, but the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) used to be two different organizations. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |