Blue Care customer service representative Christina Rogers answers calls at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee.BlueCross TennCare plansStarting in 2015, three plans will be available for TennCare recipients across the state:BlueCare. The TennCare plan operated by the state’s biggest health insurer, the Chattanooga-based BlueCross BlueShield of TennesseeAmeriGroup. Based in Virginia Beach, Va., the Medicaid provider is a subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc., and serves 2.7 million members in Tennessee, Georgia and 10 other states.UnitedHealth Group. The Minneapolis-based insurer, the nation’s biggest, serves 70 million Americans.Source: Tennessee Bureau of TennCareBlue Care at a glanceCompany sponsor: Volunteer Health Plans, a subisdiary of BlueCross BlueShield of TennesseeStarted: 1994Number of standard TennCare enrollees: 220,000 members in East Tennessee and 180,000 in West TennesseeTennCare Select: A specialty product for disabled children and those in state custody for 40,000 membersRevenues: About $2 billion a yearAverage cost: About $225 per member per monthStaff: 900 employees, including 500 in ChattanoogaSource: BlueCross and BlueShield of Tennesee
When Tennessee launched TennCare in January 1994, the switchboard at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee was so overwhelmed on the first day of enrollment that operators couldn’t even answer all the calls, let alone respond to the applicants’ questions.
As the state’s biggest managed care organization – and the sponsor of the toll-free phone number for TennCare inquiries – BlueCross was inundated with questions about the new privately operated Medicaid plan.
“It practically shut down the switchboard for the entire company,” said Amber Cambron, a 26-year BlueCross veteran who is now chief operating officer for BlueCross’s TennCare program. “Everybody here at the time was used to primarily commercial business and group accounts, and to have all these members call in at once – some of whom couldn’t read and many of whom were in desperate financial shape – was a real recognition that this was a very different population and a very different business.”
BlueCross quickly adapted its Blue Care program for Medicaid recipients and 20 years later TennCare accounts for about $2 billion a year of business for Tennessee’s BlueCross plan. Handling claims for the nearly half million Tennesseans enrolled in Blue Care requires more than 900 BlueCross employees, including 500 at the company’s corporate headquarters atop Cameron Hill in downtown Chattanooga.