Dive Brief:
- The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) has partnered with a London-based healthcare group to build what it says will be the largest health care provider network in the world for international health insurance customers.
- The London-based group, Bupa, covers 14 million people. The BCBSA, for its part, is a coalition of 37 independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensees.
- The partnership will take in more than 11,500 hospitals in about 750,000 practitioners in 190 countries. The deal also embraces Bupa's purchase of a 49% stake in Highway to Health, the Blue Cross-owned company that sells GeoBlue international Health Insurance products.
Dive Insight:
In announcing the building of an international network, both Bupa and the BCBSA cite research predicting that global employers and expatriate workers will need the strong coverage provided by such a partnership. It certainly makes sense that travel insurance would be a lackluster product beside something as far-reaching and mature as the network these two companies can build together. Given the shrinking networks in the U.S., expatriates and global workers may have better network coverage than U.S. beneficiaries do.