RELEASE
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Announces Sole Ownership of NASCO to Accelerate Digital Evolution and Expand Market Capabilities
Brianna Neace
| 3 min read
DETROIT, Nov. 30, 2021 — Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan today announced that it is now the sole owner of NASCO, a provider of innovative healthcare technology for leading Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the nation. NASCO, known throughout the healthcare IT industry for its core administrative processing solutions, was previously owned by six BCBS health plans, including BCBSM. “BCBSM has long been investing in new technologies and different ways of working to deliver solutions to the healthcare ecosystem of the future. This change demonstrates our commitment to this work now and into the future,” said Daniel J. Loepp, BCBSM president and CEO. “These capabilities will be leveraged to support NASCO’s development of a greater suite of products to address a system that is becoming more digital. We look forward to working with more plans as we continue to build on its success.” “The future of healthcare will be advanced by the speed at which companies can pivot, adopt new solutions or integrate with existing solutions to keep up with the rapidly changing and increasingly complex healthcare market,” said John Ladaga, NASCO president and CEO. “NASCO products have evolved far beyond claims administration and are now deeply integrated into our Blue plan customers’ operations and strategic initiatives. The existing owner plans agreed that it was time to make a significant change in order to accelerate our digital evolution and expand our product offerings.” NASCO offers more than 10 technology-based services to Blue plans across several lines of business. Serving nearly 22 million Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan members, NASCO’s core product offerings include membership management, claims processing, customer servicing and billing. In addition, the company also offers products for next best action, benefit lookup, appeals and grievances, and provider data management. BCBSM has had a minority ownership interest in NASCO since the company’s inception in 1987, and was the first Blue plan to process national account business on the NASCO platform. Through the years, NASCO has had a strong partnership with BCBSM, providing claims processing and other services for approximately four million BCBSM commercial members (nearly three-fourths of BCBSM’s total membership) across a wide range of the health plan’s business. Additionally, NASCO supports all BCBSM lines of business through various non-claims products, such as customer servicing, customer advocacy, membership, enrollment and billing. BCBSM sought complete ownership interest in NASCO to further enable the health plan’s business strategy and to ensure the stability and longevity of NASCO’s core products through a more focused product investment strategy. “BCBSM has had a decades-long business partnership with NASCO, and this is a natural progression to further innovate and add scale,” said Bill Fandrich, BCBSM senior vice president and chief information officer. “We are excited about this stronger partnership with NASCO. Together, we will bring unprecedented market capabilities beyond anything we are providing independently today.” ABOUT BCBSM Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit mutual insurance company, is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. BCBSM provides health benefits to more than 4.7 million members residing in Michigan in addition to employees of Michigan-headquartered companies residing outside the state. The company has been committed to delivering affordable health care products through a broad variety of plans for businesses, individuals and seniors for more than 80 years. Beyond health care coverage, BCBSM supports impactful community initiatives and provides leadership in improving health care. For more information, visit bcbsm.com and MiBluesPerspectives.com. ABOUT NASCO NASCO is a provider of innovative healthcare technology for leading health plans across the nation. We are driving the rapid development of digital health technologies to accelerate advancements throughout the healthcare ecosystem. NASCO continually looks ahead to identify new technologies, ideas and initiatives to aggressively advance the future of digital health and enable health plans to provide a more holistic, personalized member experience. Learn more at nasco.com.
