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Article: More green for Blues; Insurer merges health, banking services
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- June 15, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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As the line continues to blur between the insurance and financial-
services industries, the Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association has eased into the thrift business.
The association and 32 of its 39 affiliates are shareholders in
the Blue Healthcare Bank, a federal savings bank chartered in Utah
with the hopes of capturing some of the growing market for health
savings accounts, health reimbursement accounts and flexible
spending accounts.
"What was missing out in the marketplace was a way to combine all
the various products in consumer-directed health care," said Robert
C. Gross, president and chief executive of Blue Healthcare Bank.
Typically, health insurers contract ...