Fact Sheet

At a Glance

Established: March 1939, as California Physicians Service

CEO: Paul Markovich

Headquarters: San Francisco (Moving to Oakland, 2019)

Members: 3.8 million

Employees:  6,600 (12/31/17)

Financials:  $17.68b in rev./$296m net income

Health Plans Offered:

HMOs – Health Maintenance Orgs.

PPOs – Preferred Provider Org.

Dental and Vision

Medicare

Medi-Cal

Cal Medi-Connect

Expansion:  Acquired Care1st, 2015, increasing BSC’s Medicare membership and service to low-income members through Medi-Cal and Medicaid.

Volunteerism and Community Investments in 2017:

45% of our employees volunteered – a three-fold increase since 2015

$252,000 was donated by Blue Shield in matching gifts

 

Mission Statement

Blue Shield of California’s mission is to ensure that all Californians have access to high-quality health care at an affordable price.

Key Messages

We continually ask ourselves how we can innovate and challenge the status quo to transform a dysfunctional healthcare system into one that is worthy of our family and friends.

We are steadfast in our commitment to serve all Californians. In 2017, we offered individual and family plans in every California zip code.

We put substantial effort into strengthening how we serve our members through improved customer service, enhanced digital solutions, and increased one-on-one support.

We are a non-profit organization. We believe that how we pursue our mission is just as important as what we achieve. That means acting in a way that is ethical and fair in everything we do.

Innovation

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) - We are nationally recognized for creating ACOs, partnerships with physicians and hospitals to manage the quality, cost and overall care of patients. Since 2010, ACOs have:

  • Generated $486 million in savings
  • Decreased in-patient bed days per 1,000 members by 16%
  • Reduced emergency room use by more than 7%

Palliative Care - We are the only health plan offering home-based palliative care in all 58 California counties.

Narcotics Safety Initiative – Our 3-year plan to reduce opioid use among our plan members by 50 percent by the end of 2018 has almost achieved its goal (42% reduction as of 5/1/ 2018).

Manifest MedEx – We collaborate with Manifest MedEx, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a comprehensive, digital health record for every Californian.  It is one of the nation’s largest health information exchanges (HIEs), maintaining 11 million claims records from four major health plans, including Blue Shield of California, and 5 million clinical patient records from more than 300 participating partners.

Lifestyle/Preventative Medicine

We focus on preventive care to improve the lives of our members.  Wellvolution, the center of our lifestyle medicine program, provides a comprehensive list of diet and lifestyle programs:

  • Daily Challenge – Micro health intervention tips via app, text or email offering a daily health change – physical, mental, financial, etc.