High-value healthcare. Affordable coverage.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield strives to make these two important aspirations a dual reality that the people, companies and organizations of Arkansas can count on.
For more than seven decades, now, Arkansas Blue Cross has engaged with other stakeholders in the healthcare system to improve the health, financial security and peace of mind of the members and communities we serve. Today, that work continues, with investments and initiatives designed to achieve balance.
The balance we seek is founded on:
- Our desire for a healthy Arkansas – helping people and communities to be as well as
- Our Arkansas roots – as a home-grown Arkansas company with a statewide presence and a genuine commitment to our home state.
- Our fiscal stewardship – which helps us maintain low margins and still weather uncertain financial
- Our powerful tools – which enable us to share data and collaborate with healthcare providers and employers to identify trends and address issues in a timely and targeted
- Our focus on the future – meeting immediate needs while keeping an eye on the horizon to develop proactive, forward-looking
Because we’ve seen so many evolutions in healthcare and coverage over more than 75 years, we know that change never stops coming. We hope you will look to us as a resource for information as we work to give Arkansans access to the best care at the best value and proactively work together to meet our state’s unique health challenges.
Arkansas foundation, Arkansas focus
Arkansas Blue Cross was founded in 1948 as a grassroots collaboration when the Arkansas Medical Society, the Arkansas Hospital Association and the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation came together to stabilize the state’s post- Depression healthcare financing and delivery system.
Today, Arkansas Blue Cross is one of 33 independent licensees of the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and is the oldest and largest health insurer in Arkansas. Arkansas Blue Cross and its family of affiliated companies employ more than 3,200 Arkansans who live and work throughout the state, filling a multitude of diverse roles. More than 10,000 healthcare professionals participate in our provider networks.
Presence throughout Arkansas
We recognize that each part of our state is as unique as its diverse population. That’s why we’ve maintained sales and service centers throughout the state. We currently have a local presence in the Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Hot Springs, Little Rock, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Rogers and Springdale areas. These regional centers give all Arkansans access to convenient, timely expertise and service from hometown folks who understand their needs.
Plans for all Arkansans
Arkansas Blue Cross offers two basic health plan categories for folks who live, work and play in Arkansas:
- Consumer health plans (for individuals) – We have a wide range of health, dental and vision insurance policies for individuals and families (including offerings on the Health Insurance Exchange) as well as Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement policies for seniors.
- Employer-sponsored health plans – Employers may select from fully insured or self-funded versions of group health and dental plans to offer to their
Affordability for Arkansans
We believe our primary role is to be a good steward of the premium dollars our members pay us. We work with doctors, hospitals and others in the medical community to address the continual rise in healthcare costs. When we share information and ideas, it leads to innovative care and payment models that focus on keeping people healthy, coordinating services among providers and producing the best care outcomes for each person.
Owned by Arkansans (our policyholders)
Arkansas Blue Cross is owned by our policyholders, not by stockholders. All our revenue goes to process and pay current or future medical claims. Of every premium dollar we collect, we pay out nearly 87 cents in benefits for our customers. The remaining 13 cents goes toward operating costs and reserve funds, which are required by law, to safeguard financial strength and to pay claims when costs run higher than anticipated – or during emergencies or disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to our reserves, we were able to offer many hospitals no-interest loans to help with their cash flow issues during that trying time.
Since we cannot sell stock like the large national insurers, we have limited access to capital to fund ongoing infrastructure needs or respond to unexpected events. During more than 75 years of business, we have worked to build reserves to be used when cash flow could be disrupted. Though those reserves may seem sizable, it’s important to note we insure the overwhelming majority of Arkansans. Accordingly, our reserve dollars amounted to only about $1,882 per covered member at the end of 2023 – less than the cost of one day in a hospital. Clearly, if a catastrophe were to disrupt our revenue stream for an extended period, it would not take long to deplete these reserves.
The Affordable Care Act established the medical loss ratio (MLR), which legally establishes the percentage of each premium dollar (80 percent for individual and small-group plans; 85 percent for large-group plans) that an insurer must spend directly on the payment of healthcare benefits. If an insurance company does not meet that threshold, it must send refunds to its customers. Historically, our performance greatly exceeds the federal medical loss ratio thresholds.
Policyholders are our top priority but not our only obligation. Arkansas Blue Cross has paid more than $822 million in state and premium taxes over the past dozen years, and we are continually challenged to satisfy new and changing regulations from the state and federal governments.
Commitment to Arkansas’ people – and its healthcare providers
Arkansas Blue Cross is proud to participate in programs that improve the health of all Arkansans. We’re also proud of our partnership with the state on various initiatives throughout the years.
- Arkansas Blue Cross was the only company that offered health plans in all 75 counties during the launch of the Affordable Care Act’s Private That allowed the state to meet the federal government’s requirements for implementing the program. That effort included an initial investment of $18 million before the program even started – and the addition of 200 employees to our workforce. And today we’re still the primary health insurance carrier for the most economically challenged areas of our state, where access to healthcare providers is lacking.
- In early 2024, Arkansas Blue Cross was the first health insurer in the state to follow the Arkansas General Assembly’s lead and expand access to certain pharmacist-delivered testing and treatment Members now have coverage – at hundreds of pharmacies in communities throughout Arkansas – to receive testing (for conditions like COVID-19, flu and strep throat), prescriptions to fight those conditions and medicines to help combat opioid overdoses and tobacco dependency. Since the start of this expansion, more than 2,000 members have received essential health services from their community pharmacist. Since early 2024 through July 1, we have paid pharmacists more than $300,000 in new revenue for these expanded medical tests and treatments.
Commitment to Arkansas’ communities
In 2001, we established our charitable foundation, the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas. Since then, the foundation has funded grants from the interest earned on the investment made more than two decades ago.
So far, the Blue & You Foundation has:
- Awarded more than $63 million in grants to thousands of health-improvement programs throughout our state – in all 75 counties.
- Awarded $11.9 million in grants (in 2023 and 2024 alone) to initiatives targeting maternal and pediatric health, behavioral/mental health and social determinants of
Additionally, Arkansas Blue Cross contributes about $1 million in sponsorships annually to civic, cultural, educational and health-improvement organizations in Arkansas and consistently supports disaster-relief efforts in our state, both through funding and through volunteerism by our employees.
Arkansas Blue Cross remains committed to improving the health of all Arkansans and to working toward a sustainable approach for the future of healthcare in our state.
I hope this overview gives you a better context to the role Arkansas Blue Cross plays in our state’s healthcare system. We remain committed to our members, the dedicated healthcare providers who provide vital services to all Arkansans and to the communities throughout our state. I look forward to working with each of you as we continue improving our state’s healthcare system and addressing the unsustainable escalation of medical costs. Please contact me or any of our legislative team with any questions or concerns you may have now or in the future.