Nonprofit Blues company seeks to acquire Oklahoma plan

Health Care Service Corp. says it's ready for more growth and is in the market for mergers with other nonprofit plans.

By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Jan. 3/10, 2005.

A Chicago-based company that owns Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Texas and New Mexico said in December 2004 that it's taking steps to eventually merge with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.

Health Care Service Corp. said it had signed a letter of intent to engage in due diligence discussions with the Tulsa-based Blues plan, which, like itself, is a nonprofit mutual company. That would pave the way for a "strategic alliance" that in turn would become an official corporate marriage with the Oklahoma plan as a subsidiary, the company said.

"You've got Anthem and WellPoint actively bringing together for-profit companies, and we think our role is kind of to provide a similar role for nonprofits," said Bob Kieckhefer, spokesman for HCSC.

Indiana-based Anthem and California-based WellPoint Health Networks late last year combined to become WellPoint, the nation's leading private health insurer, based in Indianapolis. The companies operated for-profit Blues plans.

If the merger is accomplished, physicians in the Oklahoma network probably will notice little or no changes, Kieckhefer said.

The Oklahoma State Medical Assn. is still studying the planned merger and does not have an official position on it yet, said Mukesh T. Parekh, MD, the group's president and an ob-gyn in Oklahoma City. The association is interested in knowing if any changes in physician contracts that might occur under HCSC would be beneficial or harmful, he said.