Pennsylvania is one of the six states with more than one (four) big Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield companies. Locally, there are two dominant health insurers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Geisinger Health Plan, while private insurers such as Aetna have a small stake in our market.
It’s been a well-publicized story that the giant Pittsburgh-based insurer Highmark Inc. (a Blue Shield company) is seeking to merge with Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross. But it slipped beneath the public radar (until the Scranton Times-Tribune covered it) that Highmark Inc. -which owns a hefty stake in a subsidiary of Blue Cross of NEPA -recently took a greater role in running our local Blue.
The first story in this two-part series, “Blue’s silent partner,” documents the strengthening of ties between the two companies and questions the future of local control for our region’s largest health insurer. The second story, “A Case of The Blues,” covers the trend of how Blues across the country have merged in recent years. They’ve consolidated to about 40 Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies from around 82 just 20 years ago.