Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) traces its origin to the non-profit Baylor Plan, founded by Dr. Justin Ford Kimball in 1929 as the nation's first hospital pre-payment plan. Today, BCBSTX is a Texas-based division of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a mutual legal reserve company established and licensed in 1936. Headquartered in Chicago, HCSC also operates as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma.
Local offices across Texas serve unique markets, negotiate provider arrangements, and recruit and manage network providers. Sales, service, and network management personnel in local offices are supported by core functions that are centralized for training, consistency, and economies-of-scale.
Full Service Units, also located across the state, provide the full range of administrative services on an account-specific basis, including a single point of accountability to the customer and one-stop shopping for resolution of all member service issues.
Our mission is to promote the health and wellness of our members and communities through accessible, cost-effective, quality health care.
> In 2007, BCBSTX's Care Van program won an award from America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in recognition for its innovative child immunization efforts using 10 Care Vans to provide improved access to immunizations for uninsured children across the state of Texas. BCBSTX was also awarded the Behavior Modification/Obesity Corporate Champion for Kids award from Texas CASA, Inc. BCBSTX has also won numerous awards for marketing and communication materials to members and providers.
> In 2006, the Texas Diabetes Council awarded BCBSTX for exceeding the Texas average in all six comprehensive diabetes care measures. Harvard Medical School's Department of Healthcare Policy awarded BCBSTX the BlueWorks for Consumers award for its innovative approach to high-quality performance in improving the delivery of mental health care follow-up services across the state. Thomson Medstat awarded BCBSTX its Innovator Award for creating a clinically based methodology for comparing the cost of care delivered by providers in the statewide PPO network.