Blue Cross Blue Shield Association begins new plan designed to contain healthcare costs and improve care

In the New York Times (10/18,B2) Saturday interview column, during an interview with Scott Serota, who is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s president and chief executive, Elizabeth Olson discussed the association’s new “four point initiative aimed at containing healthcare costs and improving care.” Serota said that the association’s new plan is geared towards “the real underlying issue of healthcare reform, “which is that the entire healthcare delivery system needs to be modified.” In doing this, one goal would be that “healthcare costs rise no faster than any other goods and services.”

By “improving the underlying system,” Serota said that the association can get rid of care that is “unnecessary, redundant and, in some cases, even harmful.” Ensuring that everyone has healthcare coverage is another goal. 

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association supports working with “people who are eligible for government programs but are not enrolling” and developing “new products like high-deductible plans to attract people who think they will never get sick” to expand coverage. Serota also said that the association will put out yearly benchmarks to measure “what gets done.”