needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message health care service corporation type mutual legal reserve company industry managed health care founded 1936 headquarters blue cross blue shield tower chicago illinois us key people paula steiner chairman and ceo products health plans ; group disability life insurance number of employees 22 000 website www.hcsc.com health care service corporation hcsc is the largest customer owned health insurance company in the united states and an independent licensee of the blue cross and blue shield association it also deals in life insurance products and is structured as a mutual legal reserve insurer . it concentrates its operations in illinois and texas . as the 4th largest health insurer in the us overall it employs more than 22 000 people and serves nearly 15 million members . contents 1 history 2 company structure 3 geographical area of operations 4 financial information 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1936 a group of chicago civic leaders hospital officials and physicians pooled their own resources and launched what was initially called the chicago plan for hospital care . the company s first health insurance policy became effective on january 21 1937 . the company incorporated as hospital service corporation enrolled 36 000 members in the first six months of operations . the company adopted the blue cross symbol in 1939 and the blue shield symbol in 1947 . the blue cross plan for hospital services and the blue shield plan for physician services operated separately until 1975 when they were merged as health care service corporation . by 1982 all the smaller blue cross plans in illinois were also merged with the chicago based plan and the company operated as blue cross and blue shield of illinois . other blue cross and blue shield plans joined hcsc texas in 1998 ; new mexico in 2001 ; oklahoma in 2005 ; and montana in 2013 . company structure edit hcsc is an independent licensee of the blue cross and blue shield association . it structures itself as a particular type of mutual insurance a mutual legal reserve insurer . citation needed geographical area of operations edit as of 2015 update hcsc s operations are concentrated in illinois and texas which accounted for 84 % of total revenue through the first nine months of 2014 followed by oklahoma 9 % of revenue . 1 hcsc markets itself as a blues plan and its divisions and subsidiaries are blue cross and blue shield of illinois blue cross and blue shield of texas blue cross and blue shield of montana blue cross and blue shield of new mexico blue cross and blue shield of oklahoma and dearborn national . citation needed financial information edit as of 2014 update hcsc was the country s largest nonpublic health insurer and the fourth largest health insurer overall with more than 4 million members . 1 in 2010 hcsc nearly doubled its income to 1.09 billion and began a streak of billion dollar profits for 4 straight years . 2 between 2009 and 2013 hcsc s five year average of return on capital was 10.5 % . during 2014 hcsc profits decreased from medical losses and expenses associated with the company s aggressive addition of members sourced from aca exchanges . yet in 2015 fitch ratings assessed its financial strength still at a and gave it an a for likelihood of default and senior unsecured rating . finch stated that lack of geographic diversification has historically kept hcsc out of the aa rating category and that hcsc would be downgraded if it were no longer to market itself as a blues plan . 1 see also edit for profit corporation references edit a b c fitch ratings february 17 2015 . fitch affirms health care service corporation s ratings . reuters . retrieved 25 may 2015 . blue cross parent boosts profit in second quarter . crain s chicago business . crain communication inc. 3 september 2013 . retrieved 18 december 2014 . external links edit health care service corporation this article on an insurance company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this chicago related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title health care service corporation & oldid 743336648 categories insurance companies based in illinoiscompanies based in chicagomutual insurance companiesmembers of blue cross blue shield associationinsurance company stubschicago stubsmutual insurance companies of the united stateshidden categories articles needing additional references from may 2015all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from may 2015articles containing potentially dated statements from 2015all articles containing potentially dated statementsarticles containing potentially dated statements from 2014all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 04 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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