Did we hear Stephen correctly say HS brand wins, no more Blue Medicare?
41 replies (most recent on top)
@tq I find it hard to completely blame Washington. Our plans have notoriously been more expensive than big name competitors. We chase away all the healthy people.
I am so distraught, I've been crying all weekend. Our brand is in danger, OUR BRAND! Somebody do something!
HCSC will always take the easy path instead of the right path whenever faced with a large system effort. There is no one willing to stick their neck out. They are more than willing to live with a half baked effort and the problems that result.
@tp products are not competitively priced in part due to what is going on in our nation’s capitol
Is this why the 2026 Medicare products are not competitively priced? Are they intentionally blowing up the block of businesses? There are other pdp plans out there that can mop the floor with us, same for mapd.
@dk This is a d-mb analysis. Brand is a majority of the issue when purchasing. This is a super dangerous moment for HCSC. What work did they put in to branding HealthSpring? Look at the team who branded it. No effort.
A customer looks at BCBS as a company. They don't give a sh-t that HCSC sees it as a product line.
@hg the money isn’t stuck in a reserve status though. They can move the funds by request for investment purposes or for business needs.
There is a formal process for it.
@hh not in empty lots that’s for sure.
@fq ever heard of open enrollment? How the heck do seniors pick MA plans?
@hf yes, lots in reserves...which is good, but that is earmarked for reserves and they need to keep that there. Their money? Thought the company was a mutual? Also, thought a lot of money is the clients?
You guys make it sound like HCSC is this struggling company that’s about to fall apart because of a couple of bad years. That’s just not reality. HCSC has more money than most of us can even comprehend there’s absolutely zero risk of anything happening to the company. We’d have to lose money every single year for the next 30 years before it would even be something to worry about. Outside of it being nearly impossible to go public, the board would never take money out of their own pockets and go public.
@h3 This is also why they’re happy to have dipsh-ts holding nominally important roles, up to and including the C-suite — so they will execute these plans without recognizing what’s happening.
@h2 Those partially-owned subsidiaries and “strategic investments” have always been a way to funnel cash out of HCSC.
@OP Alternatively, someone on the board creates an entirely new entity to which HCSC will somehow indebt itself through some strategically “bad” decisions, then when we dissolve they’ll get all our assets, and eventually our biggest customers and best talent also, then IPO.
This process might already be underway. The end game has always been to make Milton as rich as possible.
@em for hcsc to go public or to consumed by a public company it will first require hcsc to de-mutualize. Not an impossible task but far from simple. Talk to a corporate accountant about such a thing and their eyes will roll over such a task. Each and every member potentiality gets an equal share of the total value of the company. The board and c-suite executives would not get a bigger share than any other member.
Wonder if they’ll still think this is a great idea when they get the results after AEP?
Bet blue plans still beat the hs brand in the 5 states. Even handicapped with non commissionable plans.
@f5 Where is this Senior shopping that he stopped by a lot and thought of blue cross????
Where do seniors shop for insurance in empty lots?
@f9 nah..they need to be a national payer. So, this is the strategy they landed on. If I were a commercial employer would do an RFP and say I can get the same discounts through Anthem or other and less admin? Why is my company subsidizing this spend?
@f5 It's almost like they want MA to fail. WTF?
@f1 think about this...when any senior is shopping for MA...they will skip by a lot and then focus on "Blue Cross...". Brand is so much. "HealthSpring"...whatever.
@f1 this is spot on!
@f1 Counterpoint: Even BCBS employees no longer trust the BCBS brand. Hence, the activity on this website.
@dk With due respect, your analogy is flawed. BCBSIL is not a product, it’s a brand name of a company that sells products to employers and individuals, namely access to provider networks. It’s true that this brand apparently is being phased out, which is a shame because by one account “Blue Cross Blue Shield remains perhaps the most recognized / considered health insurer brand among U.S. consumers – strong in awareness, top of mind when people think about health insurance.” The danger is not in failing to get onboard with a new way of thinking, the danger is the company forgetting that the consumer knows and trusts the BCBS brand.
Well... if Healthspring / HCSC becomes a publically traded company one day then perhaps they will award us stock and make us instant millionaires!
@em not in Texas. Texas would demand the money back for giving them credits for being a mutual company.
@e4 if and when another publicly traded company acquired HCSC it is possible and can happen.
@d7 hcsc is a mutually owned company. It's near impossible to turn it into a publicly traded company.
@dn not at all what I’m saying.
@dk wow...so, youre saying the Blue brand has lost its relevance? Wow...just wow...how d-mb are you?
@d2 saying you work for BCBS Illinois would be like a Google employee saying they work for Android, or an Apple employee saying they work for iPad, or a Toyota employee saying they work for Prius. BCBS Illinois is a product line, not a company. Not anymore. It’s a mindset shift and it has big implications for how you think about your relationship to this company. I say this because I think many people who are set on old ways of thinking are at most risk when another round of layoffs come. If you don’t get on board, you may get left behind.
@d2 in 5-7 years, we won’t be BCBS or HCSC. We will be Healthspring, a publicly traded company
@d3 Stephan Harris literally said this in yesterday’s panel hosted by the Management Council.
Hilarious if anyone thinks that we're dropping Medicare blues.
@cy I’ll stop thinking of myself as a BCBS employee when members stop saying how much they like BCBS and how glad they were when their employer left but then came back to us. Nobody knows or cares what HCSC is.
@b5 New Mexico, not Mexico. Please tell me this was a joke
This should not be a surprise to anyone paying attention. The writing was on the wall when the new brand was announced. Also why people have to stop thinking of yourselves as BCBS employees. It’s a new day, people. Get your head out of the sand. If you’re only just realizing this, it’s already too late for you.
All but Montana and Mexico.
I didn’t even know we had a plan in Mexico
@ag They would only compete if both plans are offered in the five states, unless there’s an obscure Association rule. Another question is why would they dump a brand name like BCBS with such high brand recognition? I mean, nobody has heard of HCSC.
@OP Not sure why that’s a surprise. Did you think they’d support competing brands?
Give it 5 years. HCSC will rebrand it all health spring and sell it back to Cigna with blues membership included.
Every other blue plan is offloading Medicare anyway