Research Paper on:
Strategic Roadmap for Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
(Williams & Torrens, 2001). One way to describe the firms is to distinguish between mutual companies such as Metropolitan and Prudential and stock owned firms like Aetna and United Health  Care (Williams & Torrens, 2001). Also, the Blues is a different animal. While currently a health insurance company, as are others, its history and presence as an industry leader is  quite unique. II. Blue Cross/ Blue Shield Company Profile Blue Cross Blue Shield actually initiated the concept of private health care in 1929 (Williams & Torrens, 2001). The  Blues was different from run of the mill insurance companies at the time because instead of paying indemnity benefits, the company would pay the total cost for service (Williams &  Torrens, 2001). This trend spilled over and soon, most health insurance would also pay the cost of care as opposed to a specific amount of money. In respect to Blue  Cross/Blue Shield, things changed in the 1990s and to save on costs, managed care became paramount, something that was not ordinarily associated with the Blues (Williams & Torrens, 2001). In  many ways, the company simply followed a trend. Today, Blue Cross/Blue Shield is considered to be the largest health benefits provider in the United States of America ("Blue Cross/Blue Shield,"  2008). III. SWOT Analysis Strengths * The company is an industry leader. * Blue Cross/Blue Shield is innovative. For example, Blue Cross Blue  Shield of Massachusetts provides performance incentives for all of its healthcare providers (Wechsler, 2006). Under the program, the best physicians would make the most money (Wechsler, 2006). Weaknesses  * The company has succumbed to problems in the industry and is now entrenched in managed care. * To compete for larger markets, some of the Blues plans are cooperatively