Management Planning and Ethics: Wellpoint Assessment
MGT: 330 Management: Theory, Practice, and Application
March 1, 2006
Management Planning and Ethics: Wellpoint Assessment
Management planning and ethics play a major role in any organization. This assessment will evaluate the functions of management through the organization of Wellpoint. We will discuss and give a brief history of Wellpoint and their mission as an organization. Also, we will describe how legal issues, ethics, and corporate social responsibility impact management planning in Wellpoint.
History of Blue Cross
Developed in 1929 by a man named Justin Ford Kimball, Blue Cross was an association of health insurance plans. It was in 1982, after Blue Cross had originally lost its affiliation with the American Hospital Association, that they merged with the National Association of Blue Shield Plans to form Blue Cross Blue Shield. Technically, Blue Cross Blue Shield is a trade association for a series of locally operated plans. There are 40 local member companies of Blue Cross Blue Shield that operate under the umbrella. In addition, the company, or rather its local affiliates, act as Social Security administrators (2005).
Many would say that managed health care in the United States is very closely linked to the Blue Cross Blue Shield design. Blue Cross Blue Shield's operating headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois and in Washington D.C. The company employs about 850 people in its headquarters. Anthem began its journey of becoming a competitive, national organization in 1993, when it made one of its first mergers with a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in Kentucky. ...