A Historic Change for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Daniel J. Loepp

| 3 min read

Daniel J. Loepp is President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Mr. Loepp has directed sweeping initiatives and innovations that have led to a historic transformation of BCBSM and health care in Michigan. He played a major role in modernizing the state’s health care delivery system in a process that led to enactment of new laws that transformed BCBSM to become a nonprofit mutual insurance company in January 2014. Mr. Loepp has led BCBSM initiatives to improve health care quality and slow cost increases, saving nearly $1.5 billion through several programs that have garnered national attention and served as models implemented across the country. Under his leadership, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is helping to revitalize and strengthen Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing. In 2011 and 2012, Blue Cross moved 3,000 BCBSM employees into downtown Detroit and the company is one of the largest employers in the city’s Central Business District. In Lansing, BCBSM subsidiary AF Group transformed a long abandoned power plant into a national headquarters. Mr. Loepp has stood by a commitment that BCBSM should be a driving force for good in Michigan’s core cities. It is reflected in BCBSM’s workforce diversity and inclusion efforts, supplier partnerships and community initiatives. In his tenure, BCBSM has been named Corporation of the Year in Finance and Insurance Services nine times by the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council. The company has also been named one of America’s Top Organizations for Multi-Cultural Business Opportunities by DiversityBusiness.com and ranked five consecutive years as one of the top 10 Regional Companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine, including being ranked No. 1 for consecutive years in 2015 and 2016. Mr. Loepp was honored as a 2016 recipient of the Edward N. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award. He was selected as Michiganian of the Year by The Detroit News in 2013. Mr. Loepp joined Blue Cross in 2000. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, he served as board chair of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an organization that includes all 36 Blue Cross plans and provides health coverage to more than 106 million Americans.

One of the most important buildings on the Detroit campus of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is the 133,000-square foot brown brick building that anchors the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and Beaubien Street. It’s the home to our Detroit walk-in service center for Blue Cross customers, a state-of-the-art training area, and dedicated call center where our employees serve our members. Yesterday, the building we’ve called the Bricktown Customer Service Center since it opened in 1998 underwent a historic, symbolic and meaningful change. It became the Richard E. Whitmer Building, in recognition of the man who guided Blue Cross from strife to strength during his 18-year tenure as our president and CEO from 1988 to 2006. During the dedication ceremony, it was powerful to hear from Dick Whitmer himself. His words and actions still echo through our corridors today. When Dick Whitmer became CEO of Blue Cross almost 30 years ago, Blue Cross was a company desperately in need of a leader who could rally, innovate and transform. Within a year of taking over, Dick Whitmer led Blue Cross out of financial insecurity, forged resolutions with state regulators, articulated a vision for success, and boosted employee morale. After two years on the job, he saved $185 million by reducing administrative costs and increasing revenue. He also launched a landmark diversity initiative and welcomed 50,000 new members. In his first official address as CEO, he aptly stated: “Unless we can agree on what we are, it is not likely we can agree on where we are going and how we are going to get there.” And then, in no uncertain terms, he provided both the roadmap and the vehicle that transported us and helped transform us. That roadmap includes: Being worthy of public trust and serving the public good, forging partnerships and increasing capabilities, leading on cost, quality and customer service. The vehicle: Our people. Because as Dick Whitmer noted so very early on, “in the final analysis, it will be our people, their commitment and their attitude, that are really going to make (us) a success.” This building at 500 Lafayette in the heart of Detroit represents those things that defined Dick Whitmer’s leadership at Blue Cross: investing in and bringing jobs to Detroit, working jointly with the UAW toward shared goals, equipping our employees with the best training and tools to excel, and then providing the very best in service to all who carry the Blue Cross ID card. We are still driven by Dick Whitmer’s words and fueled by the momentum he created in this location and throughout the state of Michigan. The Richard E. Whitmer Building is a tribute to the man with the vision and fortitude to put Blue Cross on the path to become the health care leader we are today, protecting the health of more than five million lives, and for that, we are all grateful. Daniel J. Loepp is president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

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