Oklahoma Insurer Completes Merger

By Jim Stafford, The Daily Oklahoman

Nov. 2–Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma has completed a merger with Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp., making it part of a not-for-profit company that operates Blue Cross plans in four states, officials said Tuesday.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma and the 500,000 Oklahomans insured by the company are now part of the nation’s largest noninvestor-owned health insurer.

The companies announced the completion almost a full year after the planned merger was announced in December 2004.

In addition to Oklahoma, Health Care Service Corp. provides health insurance coverage through three other divisions: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico.

“This primarily provides us with economies of scale and allows us to spread the risk over a four-state area, which is very important to an insurance company,” Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma spokeswoman Linda Sponsler said.

The merger also ensures that the Oklahoma Blue Cross and Blue Shield division will operate the latest technology with which to process claims, she said.

“Our members will continue to get good service from right here from Oklahomans,” Sponsler said. “It will be improved, if anything.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma employs 1,200 Oklahomans. No changes will be made in employment numbers, Sponsler said.

“All employees will stay doing what they are doing,” Sponsler said.

The Oklahoma Insurance Department approved the merger in July. State insurance officials in Illinois and Texas also have approved the merger, the company said in a news release.

Wyndham Kidd recently was named president of Oklahoma Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Health Care Service Corp. was founded in 1936, and acquired the Texas unit in 1998 and the New Mexico division on 2001. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma claims to be the state’s oldest and largest private health insurer.

In a news release issued by the Health Care Service Corp., Raymond F. McCaskey, its chief executive officer, said the company emphasized local management of its operating divisions.

“We are committed to the communities we serve and to a local focus in operating all our divisions,” McCaskey said. “The smooth and speedy completion of our merger with Oklahoma — a financially sound and extremely well run plan — indicates this is a good model for other noninvestor-owned Blues who may be seeking to gain the benefits of scale in the marketplace while retaining their local functions.”

Health Care Service Corp. is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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