Company Profile
Company Overview
The largest customer-owned health insurer in the United States and fourth largest overall, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) operates through its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and several subsidiaries to offer a variety of health and life insurance products and related services to employers and individuals.
Our products include the Participating Provider Option (PPO), Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Point of Service (POS) plan, High Deductible Health Plans that are compatible with Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Health Care Accounts (HCA) as well as traditional indemnity and Medicare Supplemental plans. We also offer, through some employer-sponsored health plans, vision, dental, managed mental health, and prescription drug coverage. In addition, through our subsidiaries we offer group life, disability, and dental solutions, as well as worksite and voluntary products.
Company History
Health Care Service Corporation traces its roots to the development of the world’s first hospital care prepayment plan in 1929 by Justin Ford Kimball, a vice president at the Baylor University School of Medicine in Texas.
Using Kimball’s plan as a model, a group of Chicago civic leaders, hospital officials and physicians met in the midst of the Great Depression to find a solution to the critical problem of affordable health care. In 1936, they pooled their own resources and launched what was initially called the Chicago Plan for Hospital Care. The company’s first health insurance policy became effective on January 21, 1937.
The concept of prepayment for hospital care caught on quickly in Chicago. The company, which was incorporated as Hospital Service Corporation, grew rapidly, enrolling 36,000 members in just the first six months of operations. The company adopted the Blue Cross symbol in 1939 and the Blue Shield symbol in 1947.
The Blue Cross Plan for hospital services and the Blue Shield Plan for physician services operated separately until 1975 when they were merged as Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC). By 1982, all the smaller Blue Cross Plans in Illinois were also merged with the Chicago-based Plan and the company operated as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. The company’s tremendous growth continues as other Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans join HCSC; Texas in 1998; New Mexico in 2001; and Oklahoma in 2005.
HCSC, as an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, currently provides Blue Cross and Blue Shield coverage to more than 12.3 million members. In addition, through its divisions and subsidiaries, HCSC offers a variety of group and individual benefits plans, related services and life insurance products.