{"id":119137,"date":"2025-11-06T19:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/119137\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T19:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:21:11","slug":"arkansas-blue-cross-blue-shield-agrees-to-partnership-with-cambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/119137\/","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield Agrees to Partnership with Cambia\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Curtis\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCurtis Barnett, president and CEO of Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield (Karen E. Segrave)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield said Thursday that it will partner with Cambia Health Solutions of Portland, Oregon, in a \u201cstrategic affiliation,\u201d allowing Cambia to manage and operate the Little Rock nonprofit health insurer.<\/p>\n

ABCBS CEO Curtis Barnett told Arkansas Business that \u201cbasically, we\u2019re entering into a contract with them [to] provide administrative management services, really all our operations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the partnership is approved by the Arkansas Insurance Department, ABCBS and Cambia will form a joint management leadership team, \u201cwhich we\u2019ll have good representation on that team,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The agreement is subject to regulatory approval in Arkansas, which is expected to be in 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arkansas Business first reported the talks<\/a> with Cambia in January. Last week, ABCBS confirmed that it was in negotiations<\/a> with the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Partnership Structure<\/p>\n

Under the partnership, the two organizations will remain independent entities but \u201cshare operations, share technology, which is a big part of this, as well as share staff as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those resources that are so important to us, especially to be successful in the future,\u201d said Barnett. He will continue to serve as president and CEO of ABCBS. He and the ABCBS board will work with Cambia\u2019s leaders on strategy, growth and community engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ABCBS also will be represented on the Cambia\u2019s holding company board, \u201cwhich gives us an opportunity to engage and influence your priorities at that level,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis affiliation brings together two organizations with a shared purpose: to be a catalyst for transforming health care,\u201d Jared Short, president and CEO of Cambia, said in the news release announcing the partnership Thursday. \u201cBy combining our strengths, we are expanding our ability to innovate for our customers, developing new solutions that make care simpler, more accessible, affordable and centered on the people we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnett declined to say how much the partnership is expected to save ABCBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cambia, a nonprofit, will receive a fee based on the services it provides ABCBS.<\/p>\n

Motivation for the Deal<\/p>\n

ABCBC decided to work with Cambia because of the rising costs of health care services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The partnership comes at a time when a number of health insurance companies have been struggling financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ABCBS, citing a rise in health care costs, reported a loss of $226.2 million<\/a> for 2024, compared with net income of $13.2 million in 2023. The company attributed the loss to a rising number of medical services for its members and higher costs for outpatient surgery and hospital services. In addition, ABCBS has seen an increase in \u201chigh-dollar\u201d claims and prescription drug costs for weight-loss medications, cancer drugs and other specialty medicines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ABCBS projects to be close to breaking even for 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barnett told Arkansas Business that by working with Cambia the \u201cmath works in terms of administrative cost, and being able to spread that out over more lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABCBS serves more than 1.9 million people and Cambia serves more than 3.6 million through its regional health plans in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and Utah.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The partnership also \u201cgives us, we think, a much better opportunity \u2026\u00a0 to grow in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech, Scale and Stability<\/p>\n

Barnett said health care is becoming more complex with cell and gene therapy, specialty medications and biopharmacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cambia has the \u201canalytics and the expertise to be able to say, OK, what is appropriate in this case? So what\u2019s the cost effective in that case?\u201d Barnett said. \u201cAnd we think that\u2019s where the biggest impact is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABCBS has 3,200 employees and Barnett isn\u2019t anticipating any layoff as a result of the partnership.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also isn\u2019t planning on eliminating any insurance lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really the opposite of that,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that through this affiliation and access to more scale, more resources, it\u2019ll either keep us in current product lines longer and maybe even more competitive into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABCBS will remain in Arkansas and be regulated by the Arkansas Insurance Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its policyholders will keep their ID cards, provider networks and their existing coverage.<\/p>\n

Cambia is expected to improve policyholders\u2019 customer experience. Cambia is a leader in technology, \u201cespecially technology as it relates to consumer type tools to help individuals be better purchasers of health care services and utilizers of health care services,\u201d Barnett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cambia also has partnered with other Blue Cross Blue Shield companies. In August, Cambia and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota announced a strategic affiliation to \u201cbetter serve members with access to care that\u2019s simpler and more affordable,\u201d according to a joint news release. \u201cThe affiliation will unify all operations and enable the organizations to share best practices for local plan innovation and services, deliver personalized member experiences and leverage Cambia\u2019s robust technology infrastructure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That partnership is also subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since 2021, ABCBS has been working with Cambia, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee as part of the Echo Innovation Alliance, which was formed to support the development of innovative products and services to improve health.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1948, ABCBS is one of Arkansas largest private companies based on revenue and one of its most iconic companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the impact and the role that we play, both in the business as well as in just our overall communities, and we want to maintain that going forward,\u201d Barnett said. \u201cBut when you look at some of the headwinds that our industry faces, some of those challenges, we feel like having a partnership that really helps both organizations bring more resources, more expertise is going to be beneficial, and it\u2019s going to be what\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Curtis Barnett, president and CEO of Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield (Karen E. Segrave) Arkansas Blue Cross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-119137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}