Partnerships Lead to Growth

How important are external alliances and partnerships at Blue Shield? Can you give an example of one where it’s been critical in advancing your goal and your vision for Blue Shield?

Yeah, well, if you think about what a health plan does, we really manage a small economy. So, there’s a huge number of dollars coming through a lot of complexity. There is no way that one organization is going to be able to do all of the functions and capabilities required in that environment really well. You, by definition, are going to be reliant on some external parties to be able to do what you’re aspiring to do.
That can vary. Some of these partnerships are with physicians and hospital systems on how to reimagine healthcare and deliver that on the ground. Some of them can be more technology related. And I think a good example of that recently is OODA Health. It was an early-stage company that started. We wanted to turn claims real time, where it all happens instantaneously and automatically.
So, we needed a third party to help us with that entire process. And that’s where OODA Health came in. We never would have been able to develop that technology on our own. We never would have had the trust of having the delivery system or other health plans, allow that to happen and be used in their context, if it had not been a third party. So, I think that’s a good example of a partnership that has helped us in that small way start to transform the health care system.