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Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans Face Strong Competition According to Mark Farrah AssociatesThursday, January 12, 2012 KENNEBUNK, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) entities are the nation's oldest and largest family of health benefits companies and undeniably the most recognized brands in the health insurance industry. Linked together through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the Blues are a national federation of 38 independent BCBS companies. Together, along with their subsidiaries, Blues organizations cover more than half of all commercially insured persons in the U.S. As of September 2011, Blues entities provided insurance or administered benefits for 94.4 million people through major medical plans, down -1.6% from the same period one year ago. Blues companies have weathered declines during the economic downturn better than Non-Blues health companies. Non-Blues entities saw total health enrollment fall from 124.9 million as of September 2010 to 120.3 million as of September 2011, a -3.7% decline. Approximately 94% of BCBS enrollment is from Commercial sources and more than half of the Blues aggregate membership is through self-funded or administrative services only (ASO) plans. In many states BCBS organizations have historically been the only carrier to sell major medical insurance directly to individuals. Often, in exchange for special regulatory considerations, they are the carrier of last resort (meaning they must issue insurance to all residents regardless of their health conditions). As more insurance entities add products to serve the Individual segment, BCBS entities are seeing market share erosion in this line of business. From 3Q10 to 3Q11 BCBS entities lost more than 281,000 non-group major medical members, while Non-Blues affiliated carriers gained over 219,000 people. In the latest Healthcare Business Strategy report, MFA aggregated and analyzed enrollment and other data for all Blues affiliated plans. To read the full text of "Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans' Confronting Strong Competition," visit the Healthcare Business Strategy library on Mark Farrah Associates' website www.markfarrah.com. About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Health Coverage Portal™, Health Insurer Insights™, Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Plans USA™ and the new County Health Coverage™, which offers population and health plan enrollment data by county nationwide. Contacts: |