The Regence Group

Company Overview
Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield is a member of the Regence Group of health insurance companies. Regence is the largest group of healthcare providers in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states regions.

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Regence Blue Cross and Blue Shield strive to be the most effective service company in the region in which they work. They work as one entity across the four-state area that they serve. By making healthcare costs easy to understand Regence Blue Cross and Blue Shield help their customers track and understand their healthcare spending.

History
The Blue Cross brand originated in 1929 at Baylor University with a plan offering teachers three weeks of hospital care for $6 per year. As the company grew, it began offering coverage to other employee groups in Dallas and later expanded to national coverage. The Blue Shield brand was developed at the start of last century with lumber and mining employers in the Pacific Northwest paying a monthly fee to a designated group of physicians.Blue Shield and the Blue Cross Associationmerged in 1982 to become the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Regence can trace its roots all the way back to that original Blue Shield plan in 1917 and is the largest group of healthcare plans in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain region. The company is not-for-profit and it administers four plans including Regence Blue Shield of Oregon, Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Utah, in addition to Regence Blue Shield of Washington.

The Blue Shield brand was developed at the start of last century with lumber and mining employers in the Pacific Northwest paying a monthly fee to a designated group of physicians. In 1939, the first true Blue Shield plan was unveiled in California. Today, Regence employs over 7000 and its membership exceeds 3-million members. Its network spans over 50,000 providers, 20,000 medical facilities, in almost 1000 communities spread over four states.

Current Organization
The Regence Group is comprised of Regence Blue Shield of Idaho, Regence Blue Shield of Oregon, Regence Blue Shield of Utah and Regence Blue Shield of Washington. The four Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield plans combined have a membership in excess of 3 million individuals throughout the four states that they cover.

Their joint turnover is approximately $6.5 million per year.Regence Blue Cross and Blue Shield are committed to providing high quality health care products to their customers. Their main aim is the make positive changes to health care provision and to cut the costs related to it.