History

New Jersey's oldest and largest health insurer began with a bold idea.

Helping people pay for hospital care was a bold, new idea in the wake of the Great Depression of 1929. Recognizing the hardships of those times, in the early 1930s, a group of Newark-area hospital representatives formed a council to coordinate health care "in ways which would be beneficial to patients and hospitals alike."

The council studied a single-hospital prepayment plan in Dallas, Texas. Thereafter, in 1932, Associated Hospitals of Essex County, Inc. was incorporated as the first multi-hospital prepayment plan and was the genesis of what was to become the nation's first Blue Cross Plan.

Associated Hospitals of Essex County, Inc. began services in 1933 with a handful of employees working in a cramped office in Newark. It enrolled 1,000 subscribers within a month and 5,000 by year's end. For a $10 annual premium - three cents a day - the first subscribers received 21 days of prepaid hospital care.

In 1936, Associated Hospitals of Essex County, Inc. officially changed its name to the Hospital Service Plan of New Jersey, but popularly it was already known as "the Blue Cross Plan."

Prepaid coverage for medical and surgical services followed as the result of the vision and dedication of two physicians and a layman - Drs. Elton W. Lance and Edward W. Sprague and John S. Thompson, a former president of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. With financial and general support from the Medical Society of New Jersey, the Medical Service Administration - the forerunner of Blue Shield of New Jersey - began. Within a few years, enabling legislation was passed that led to the establishment of Blue Shield of New Jersey, which was incorporated on March 22, 1942.

Blue Cross of New Jersey and Blue Shield of New Jersey continued as separate companies until 1986, when they merged as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey (BCBSNJ).

Until 1992, BCBSNJ served as New Jersey's "insurer of last resort" in the individual market, which means the company provided health care coverage for anyone regardless of their medical condition. In 1992, legislation was enacted to reform the individual health coverage market, requiring all health coverage carriers in New Jersey to provide coverage to anyone in the individual market regardless of their medical condition.

In 1993, BCBSNJ created hospital, dental, pharmacy and physician managed care networks and introduced HMO Blue (now Horizon HMO) as its premier managed care coverage. BCBSNJ's managed care programs feature one of the largest networks of hospitals and physicians in the state, flexible managed care benefit designs, managed dental and prescription benefit programs, and strategic partnerships with other leading organizations to ensure comprehensive support for its managed care programs.

In 1998, the company adopted a new name and logo - Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) - to create a strong and consistent brand identity for its subsidiaries and expanded operations in the region.

Today, Horizon BCBSNJ, headquartered in Newark, is the largest health insurer in the state with more than 4,400 employees serving over 3.1 million customers. It operates as the state's only not-for-profit health services corporation with a mission to develop, manage, finance, and provide access to high-quality, cost-effective health care delivery systems, insurance, and related products and services to public and private markets.

For more than 70 years, Horizon BCBSNJ has been trusted by millions of New Jersey residents as an innovative leader in providing access to affordable, quality health care.