Changing the Face of Health Care Through Innovation

The U.S. health care system faces a number of significant challenges — from lack of access to an affordability crisis to unsustainable cost trends.

These problems are so large and complex that Independence Blue Cross (IBC) believes they cannot be addressed with yesterday‘s solutions. They require fresh, creative approaches, and out-of-the-box thinking.

Finding Lasting Solutions

We know that if change is to be effective and lasting, we must be fully committed to developing the culture and capabilities that will foster innovation, both within our organization and from external innovators.

Seeking out innovation at IBC

Internally, we are committed to empowering each of our associates to improve the health of our members and our community every day. The Office of Strategy and Innovation leads all innovation initiatives, growth opportunities, business processes, and new projects.

• In partnership with ?WhatIf!, we developed a comprehensive training program to encourage creativity and problem solving at work.
• We host internal Innovation Challenges, in which our associates compete to develop new approaches to business problems and develop creative ideas such as improving our customer experience and outreach to potential customers through new retail channels.

Fostering change within the community

We believe that the Greater Philadelphia Region has tremendous assets in its vibrant innovation and startup community, its robust venture capital resources, its world-class teaching hospitals and universities, and its corporate community. We are committed to providing corporate leadership to engage with our government, corporate, and non-profit communities to help position our region as a national magnet for health care innovation and technology.

• We work with external innovators, from startups through established companies, to help develop and support new ideas and technologies that can improve care, lower costs, and increase access to health care.
• We launched the Independence Blue Cross Foundation to advance the care for our region‘s most vulnerable, enhance health care delivery, build healthy communities, and spur innovation.
• We created nearly 200 patient-centered medical homes, the nation‘s most extensive initiative, to enhance and personalize the way primary care physicians practice medicine and improve patients‘ experiences and health.
• We introduced a series of initiatives to spur innovative thinking and support innovative technologies, including the IBX Game Changers Challenge, two health care Startup Weekends, the CONVERGE summit for healthcare innovation, Drexel University‘s first Philly Health Codefest, and we are the lead sponsor, along with Penn Medicine, for the DreamIt Health accelerator.

Leading the way nationally

We believe that collaboration is necessary to address the toughest challenges in health care, and we are committed to leading the dialog on innovation within the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and among the disparate parties in the health care system that will enable meaningful change.

• We are a lead investor in the BCBSA Blue Venture Partners fund that invests in early-stage health IT companies, products, and services that promote efficiency, lower costs, and provide more consumer options.
• We joined Highmark and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, and health IT provider Lumeris Corp., to acquire NaviNet, the nation‘s largest real-time health care communications network.
• Through an investment by IBX and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies, a top-tier best-in-class Medicaid managed care organization, will expand its managed care services to the nation‘s rapidly growing Medicaid population.

Our commitment to the road ahead

IBC has been committed to enhancing the health and wellness of the people we serve for nearly 75 years. As we navigate through changes to the economy and health care, we remain a steadfast partner, unwavering in our commitment to transform health care — change the game — and boldly lead our community and our industry toward a healthier future.