Members Benefit from Blue Cross’ Diverse Business Model

Daniel J. Loepp

| 2 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.

When you think of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, you think of health insurance. It makes sense – we’ve been offering security and peace of mind in Michigan communities for more than 80 years.
But the Blue Cross of today is more than a trusted health insurance company: under our Blue Cross mutual umbrella is an increasingly diversified portfolio of businesses that provide much more than health insurance, including multiple subsidiaries operating across all 50 states.
For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan includes a specialty benefits company that offers accident and hospital recovery insurance, critical illness insurance, final expense and term life insurance, as well as long-term care insurance. Our enterprise also includes a health care technology company that offers claims processing, customer service and provider data management, as well as a nationally recognized company whose affiliated brands provide specialty and workers’ compensation insurance solutions across the U.S.
Why does this matter to our health plan members and customers? This diverse portfolio of businesses allows us at Blue Cross to enhance the core mission of our company to serve our members with high-quality, affordable health insurance while investing in our communities and managing costs.
As a nonprofit mutual, Blue Cross generates revenue across three categories: premiums and administrative fees paid by customers; income from our for-profit subsidiary companies; and returns on our investment portfolio. The revenue from our diverse subsidiaries has allowed us to weather unpredictable and unprecedented events without passing on the costs to members.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, Blue Cross put more than $2.1 billion behind our response, including absorbing member cost sharing, providing premium refunds to some group customers and rebating premiums to individual members. This was made possible by our diversified business model.
Blue Cross continues to look for ways to diversify our business beyond health insurance and we are excited for new opportunities to expand our portfolio. As a diversified business, we are better equipped to keep health care costs affordable and predictable for members and group customers, while offering high-quality health care solutions and a best-in-class provider network.
We’re ready to help, no matter what the future may bring.
Daniel J. Loepp is president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Photo credit: Getty Images

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