Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois traces its roots to the depths of the Great Depression and a group of Chicago business leaders who witnessed how relatively minor illnesses that required a hospital stay were ruining families financially. These business leaders saw terrible hardship in their community and they took action to alleviate it. In 1936, they pooled their own savings and launched a not-for-profit company called Hospital Service Corporation to offer an affordable prepaid hospital plan, which was a new concept at that time. The Chicago Plan, as it was called, was one the forerunners of what we know as health insurance today. The idea, of course, caught on and Hospital Service Corporation eventually became Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.
Today, we are the largest and most experienced health insurance company in the state, providing more than 6.5 million members with comprehensive and affordable health plans. As a division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois provides its members with a high level of confidence and security. For detailed financial reports, please visit the HCSC Web site.
We at Blue Cross are proud to be a technologically innovative, efficient and responsive health insurance company. That is why we are pleased to offer Blue Access for Members, which provides group health plan members and their dependents with secure online access to benefits summaries, claim status, provider information and valuable health tips.
Castle Group Health Inc. and it's registered DBA HealthInsure.com, has been an authorized Blue Cross agency for more than 15 years.
Financial Ratings
Information from AM BEST. www.Ambest.com
Standard & Poor's: A+ , Strong
Moody’s Investors Service: A1, Good
A.M. Best Company: A+, Superior
Data as of August 10, 2005.
Plan Features
For Small Businesses in Illinois there is no finer coverage than Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, period. Blue Cross has risen out of the morass of mediocrity in the 80's to reestablish themselves as the premier plan to have.
Blue Cross is meeting the challenges of United Healthcare, Aetna, and Unicare with quick response and leadership. Their plans offer unlimited preventive care for children in network. That's unmatched. They $500 of adult preventive care. That's unsurpassed. Top benefits in mental health care as well as a dozen other meaningful benefits make Blue Cross even better. As of January 1, 2005 Blue Cross has taken the lead and put Infertility benefits in their PPO and HMO plans all the way down to 2 employees.
Blue Cross offers a good HMO option as well. The standard offering to small groups is a triple option choice to each employee of an HMO, PPO, or HSA eligible plan. Blue Cross also offers dental, life and disability. Dental pricing for the PPO is a bit high and Blue Cross does not have a full vision plan option. The Members First discount card comes free and is worth its cost.
All these benefits come at a cost. Blue Cross has a significant customer service void. Too many computer tappers and not enough thinkers. We are optimistic about the 2004 hiring of key personnel that have already made inroads but there is quite a bit of catching up to do. For those of you to remember the character Edith-Ann from actress Lily Tomlin who mimicked the phone company in the late 1960's ,for the past 10+ years she could have mimicked Blue Cross. Blue Cross acted as though they were a governmental sanctioned monopoly when it came to service and didn't need to care. That mentality still exists at the middle level and can be a significant obstacle when trying to effective resolve a problem. The good side is that Blue Cross members have fewer problems that most carriers.
Blue Cross is also rarely in the lower half of carriers in pricing. I don't really have a problem with that, in general, because benefits are really great. The tough part from our side is inconsistent underwriting. Underwriting involves interpretation of the specific underwriter. Blue Cross underwriters seem to have widely varying interpretations day to day. Blue Cross will also not do a prescreen estimate. If you want a pre-rate, you must submit applications.
Summary: We always consider Blue Cross as a 1st option. With sky high premiums many small employers are choosing alternate carriers as a better value even after accounting for benefit differences. If you have employees who might be open to an HMO, Blue Cross becomes very competitive.
Underwriting & Renewals
Underwriting
Blue Cross underwriters seem to have widely varying interpretations day to day. Blue Cross will also not do a prescreen estimate. If you want a pre-rate, you must submit applications. In general they are more likely to be on the defensive side of underwriting. Marginal conditions are no big deal, but the hint of a problem will result in higher than average ratings.
Renewals
From 1997 until 2004 you would generally cringe when your renewal arrived. Rate increases for the PPO have been 3-8 points over local, average trends. In 2005 a significant derivation has occurred. Here are Castle Group Health, we are not yet sure if the low rate changes is a trend or an aberration. If you had Blue Cross prior to 2005, you'll most likely have it in 2006. We have yet to see a renewal that looks unreasonable. Many of our groups in high rate tiers are seeing significant DECREASES in rates this year. I would rather see 0% for 3 years rather than down 25% this year and up 15% each of the next two years. We don;t have a crystal ball, but we believe that the party will end soon. Blue Cross new business rates are more competitive than in years past so we believe that renewals will return to trend soon. Trend is currently in the high single digits.
Renewals on the HMO have been trend or better for the past few years. Renewal anxiety should not be a factor in selecting Blue Cross.
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