News Stories

In January 2019, five major health systems in North Carolina will begin their participation in a new accountable care organization (ACO) program with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) that will hold them accountable for the...

Customer service representatives are working extended hours over the three-day weekend to take calls and call back customers that need help. Our Enrollment Services Team also will be working throughout the weekend and on Monday to...

A new online database from Blue Cross and Blue Shield allows Loehr to demonstrate to his patients that he is a financial bargain.

On the insurance side, payers have made in-network pricing available to members for years. As a member (with a login and password) you could see the actual price of most procedures using any web browser. But that was exclusive to members ‒ not the general public. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is among the first (if not the first ‒ certainly as a major) to offer these closely guarded, negotiated rates to the general public.

Health insurers are unleashing a blizzard of ads, letters, live events and other efforts to reach consumers, as the industry ramps up for the reopening of the health law’s marketplaces on Nov. 15.

“This is the beginning of a journey,” said J. Bradley Wilson, the chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, which estimates that as much as 40 percent of its payments are now through one of the new arrangements. “The fee-for-service model is changing and is going to continue to change,” he said.

Subscription may be required. Still, some insurers say enrollees so far appear less healthy than they had projected. "It's even worse than what we thought," said Patrick Getzen, chief actuary for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina. "We're seeing more chronic conditions than we would have expected," he said, and that will "put pressure on the 2015 rates." Among them are diabetes, depression, asthma, heart disease and cancer, he said.