BLUE SHIELD: CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE DIRECTION.

This article focuses on Blue Shield insurance plans in the U.S. This paper will suggest other operational and competitive factors that influence the vibrancies of Blue Shield plans in the modern era of health economics. Income limits are one aspect of Blue Shield coverage that needs to be reevaluated. These limits relate directly to the sliding scale of billing that has been almost as much a part of many, if not most, physicians' financial practices as the Hippocratic oath has been a part of their professional practice. Many Blue Shield plans are vitally concerned about benefit adequacy as is indicated by the Blue Shield Test of Performance Study conducted among Blue Shield plans in 1964.