nonprofit industry health care founded 1996 headquarters portland oregon united states key people mark ganz president & ceo number of employees 5 500 2010 website http cambiahealth.com cambia health solutions is a nonprofit health insurance corporation based in portland oregon . 1 it sells health insurance through several subsidiaries including regence a member of the blue cross blue shield association operating in oregon idaho utah and washington ; asuris northwest health ; bridgespan health ; and lifemap . 2 cambia also invests in non insurance healthcare technology and service companies such as gns healthcare qliance and true link . before november 2013 cambia was known as the regence group . 1 regence is licensed to sell health insurance plans under the blue cross blue shield name in utah and oregon . it is licensed under the blue shield name in idaho and western washington . its non blue subsidiary uses the asuris name in eastern washington because premera acquired that territory s blue shield license in 1998 when it merged with spokane s medical services corporation . regence has 2.5 million members in idaho oregon utah and washington . it has the largest enrollment of any health insurer in oregon 3 and washington . 4 it has offices in each state served and employs 5 500 people . contents 1 history 2 criticism 3 see also 4 references history edit regence was formed by a series of mergers in the 1990s to provide a regional alliance regence of nonprofit health plans that would be substantial enough to continue operating in its historical service areas as national for profit insurers entered the market . 5 among the many medical bureaus and health plans that merged to become regence is pierce county medical bureau formed in 1917 in tacoma . 6 merger activity remained active among hospitals 7 and health plans nationally in the 1990s . 8 in the pacific northwest there were approximately 30 health plans in 1997 and by 2002 there were 20 . activity increased when thurston county medical bureau merged with king county medical bureau and increased more when pierce county medical bureau and king county medical bureau merged with the bluecross blueshield of oregon which had themselves merged in 1983 to form the benchmark group in 1995 under dick woolworth s leadership . richard dick woolworth s experience as chair of the bluecross blueshield association would prove useful in his new role as ceo as he led tbg in their coming wave of m & a activity . bluecross blueshield of utah joined in 1996 and blueshield of idaho joined shortly thereafter under an administrative services agreement that allowed bsi to remain owned by its members as a mutual insurance company but have regence handle the management . skagit county medical bureau and whatcom county medical bureau merged in 1998 as part of the unaligned movement to form northwest washington medical bureau . in 2001 northwest washington medical bureau merged with regence . in 2003 dick woolworth retired his place taken by mark ganz . in 2006 regence renamed one of its three portland buildings in woolworth s honor . in 1999 regencerx was created as a nonprofit pharmacy benefit manager . its leadership on comparative effectiveness research of prescription medications is respected within the industry . 9 10 in 2005 regence received 24.8 % of the customer complaints with the washington insurance commissioner with a share of 22.3 % of the market . citation needed regence s president mark ganz earned 897 671 from regence blueshield in washington in 2008 including a bonus of 550 548 . in oregon his compensation package totaled 872 665 . in both states ganz brought home 1 770 336 . the other high ranking regence officials with six figure salaries included mohandas nair executive vice president and chief marketing executive who earned 356 681 from washington and 295 140 from oregon for a total of 651 821 . regence s treasurer steve hooker treasurer who s announced his retirement earned 337 543 from washington and 304 641 in oregon for a total of 642 184 . william barr executive vice president of operations took home 430 926 from washington and 377 119 from oregon for a total of 808 045 . and kerry barnett executive vice president of regence s corporate division earned 312 482 from washington and 302 990 in oregon for a total of 615 472 . 11 according to its website regence used 86.3 cents of each premium dollar in 2010 to pay medical claims . 12 oregon publishes this medical loss ratio information for major insurers in that state . 3 criticism edit the seattle times published an article on february 9 2012 alleging that non profit insurance outfits including regence blueshield are stockpiling billions of dollars in reserves while simultaneously increasing their rates . 13 see also edit courtney sherwood 14 june 2013 . cambia health solutions profit climbs by 95 percent . the lund report . retrieved 2 may 2014 . elizabeth hayes 13 jan 2014 . cambia s healthsparq subsidiary acquires another health site . portland business journal . retrieved 2 may 2014 . references edit a b andy giegerich 7 november 2011 . regence parent changes name to cambia . portland business journal . retrieved 2 may 2014 . brad carlson 22 march 2012 . new name for regence life and health insurance . idaho business review . retrieved 2 may 2014 . a b http insurance.oregon.gov health report 3458 health report 2010 online.pdf http www.insurance.wa.gov publications annual reports 2008reportappendix appendixe.pdf internal history rod bunnell 1997 washington state historical society pierce county medical society papers http industry.bnet.com healthcare 10001384 hospital mergers are a major health cost driver jan. 13 1999 concern rising about health plan mergers new york times jan. 13 1999 the health care industry is rapidly whittling itself down to a few giant companies that dominate the health systems . http www.managedcaremag.com archives 0801 0801.biologics.html http invivoblog.blogspot.com 2009 10 musings on payer pharma relations.html links http www.thelundreport.org resource congress look at executive pay includes regence http www.regence.com transparency regence and reform what regence members receive for their premium dollar.jsp http seattletimes.nwsource.com html localnews 2017460805 surplus09m.html retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cambia health solutions & oldid 743757665 categories companies based in portland oregonhealthcare in portland oregoneconomy of the northwestern united statesinsurance companies of the united statespharmacy benefit management companies based in the united statesamerican companies established in 1996health care companies established in 19961996 establishments in oregonhealth insurance companiesmembers of blue cross blue shield associationhidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from november 2008 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 11 october 2016 at 02 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view