Blog

Each Wonks’ Corner, a member of Blue Shield’s government affairs team dives into a current policy topic. See our previous Wonks’ Corner blogs here. From accelerating demand for electronic health record systems to mandating use of modern data exchange...

The U.S. is facing a maternal health crisis. The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is three times the rate as most other high-income countries, and maternal and infant mortality is especially inequitable for Black mothers and their babies.

Dear Health Care Transformation Community, As 2022 comes to an end, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on Industry Initiatives’ work this year to advance health care transformation. Despite feeling like 2022 flew by, we have covered quite a bit of...

By any measure, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – especially as implemented in California – met or exceeded expectations on expanding coverage to tens of millions of Americans. Paired with recent state budgetary actions by Gov. Gavin Newsom opening...

A shortage of vaccines. Confusing messages about who is at risk. Challenges accessing diagnostic testing and appropriate treatments. The public health response to monkeypox looks too much like our nation’s incomplete and inequitable response to...

The nation’s progress toward value-based care is impeded by the siloed nature of the healthcare industry. Joe Castiglione, principal program manager of Industry Initiatives at Blue Shield of California, shares how Blue Shield implemented an industry...

Every person deserves access to the medications they need at a price they can afford. In August, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, landmark legislation that starts to fix the broken market for prescription drugs. This desperately needed reform...

Fragmentation in health care contributes to multiple problems, including gaps in patient care, inefficiencies in clinical care and operations, poor flow of data, and misaligned incentives. In this panel presentation, hear how Blue Shield of California and CareOregon are building bridges and breaking down barriers to a create a more cohesive health care system and looking at the entire health care ecosystem as a whole.

A few years ago, while working with some 30 healthcare startups as a director at Kaiser Permanente's venture-capital fund, Shruti Kothari found that policy could make or break a company's ability to bring...