Eying the growing healthcare market for global citizenry and travelers, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is helping create what may be the world's largest healthcare provider network.
In a partnership with the UK-based Bupa Group, which sells international health plans and operates hospitals and clinics, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is expanding its international health insurance unit, GeoBlue, to offer coverage in almost every country on the planet.
Planned to launch later this year, with coverage for 2015, the new combined network will include more than 11,500 hospitals and 750,000 medical professionals in 190 countries between GeoBlue and Bupa's provider networks.
As part of the deal, Bupa is purchasing a 49 percent stake in the parent company of GeoBlue, Highway to Health, which was founded in 1997 and started using the Blue Cross license in 2010 under a subsidiary called Worldwide Insurance Services. BCBSA will retain 51 percent ownership of the Radnor, Pa.-based Highway to Health.
Leaders from the companies pitched the new partnership and global insurance products as part of strategy to keep pace with globalization. Bupa has also been expanding into countries with growing economies, including Saudi Arabia and China.
"We know that people are becoming increasingly globally mobile, either to live, study or simply travel abroad for long periods of time, and travel insurance doesn't always provide the coverage they need or expect," said Robert Lang, managing director of private medical insurance at Bupa, which has about 14 million customers across Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, India, China and Thailand.
"We're responding by creating the biggest global provider network for people who require international health coverage, and other propositions will follow later this year," Lang, who joined Bupa a year ago after working at HSBC and ING, said in a media release.
"Blue Cross Blue Shield and Bupa are two of the most respected names in healthcare and we will work together," Scott Serota, BCBSA CEO, said. "We live in a global village, with millions of consumers going abroad for extended periods of business, leisure and study. Travelers around the world can now benefit from the security and stability that Blue Cross and Blue Shield members have long relied on."
BCBSA's deal follows other international ventures by U.S. managed care companies. Aetna recently announced plans to buy an expatriate insurer to boost its 500,000-plus international membership, and Cigna is looking to grow business in Asia, with expatriate and multinational corporate insurance offerings in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, China's largest city, while also offerings consumer health content in a partnership with Samsung.