NU Online News Service, Aug. 15, 8:46 p.m. – Two major Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies have called off plans to combine their companies through a process called "affiliation."
Health Care Service Corp., Chicago, and The Regence Group, Seattle, say they have withdrawn applications asking state regulators to approve the affiliation.
Health Care Service, a policyholder-owned mutual insurer, is the parent company of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies in Illinois, Texas and New Mexico. It covers 7 million people and brings in $12 billion in annual revenue.
Regence, the nonprofit parent of the Blues companies in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Idaho, covers 3 million people and generates $4 billion a year in revenue.
When the companies announced their affiliation plans in August 2000, they said the deal would help them cut administrative costs by consolidating back-office operations.
