1939
Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Highmark Blue Shield began enrolling members in the wake of our country's depression. It was a risky proposition, but the idea quickly caught on, and by the end of our first year in business, the company had signed on more than 10,000 members. As 1940 drew to a close, enrollment had nearly doubled.

1944
Miners, factory workers and teachers were joining by the thousands. Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania was serving the community by taking a leadership role in creating awareness and developing health programs that improved the quality of life.

1950
By this time, every third person in northeastern Pennsylvania belonged to the local Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan.

1972
Hurricane Agnes hit the area and Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania was on the scene to help victims re-establish themselves.

1977
With well more than 500,000 members, Blue Cross moved into our office location on North Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.

1987
In the face of rising health care costs, the company formed HMO of Northeastern Pennsylvania to deliver a strong and tangible response to employers seeking cost-effective heath care solutions for their employees.

1993
Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and Highmark Blue Shield established The Caring Foundation of Northeastern Pennsylvania to provide health care coverage to children of our community whose families could not afford it on their own.

1998
We celebrated our 60th anniversary, a proud milestone denoting our long-standing commitment to the businesses and people of northeastern Pennsylvania.

2001
Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania continued to attract new members. Our overall membership rose to more than 572,000 individuals, an impressive show of confidence based on our continual response to needs in a rapidly evolving health care environment.

We also implemented a customer appreciation credit to help mitigate the rise in group health care cost. The opportunity to apply the credit, applied upon contract renewal, is evaluated on an annual basis.

2002
The Blue Ribbon Foundation of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania was launched with $7.5 million in endowment aimed at improving quality of life by focusing community resources on essential health, welfare and educational issues within northeastern and north central Pennsylvania. By years end, the Foundation had awarded grants totaling $600,000 addressing issues such as child abuse, breast cancer, obesity, and crime and violence protection.

In 2002, we had the privilege of offering the state's new adultBasic insurance program for uninsured Pennsylvanians. By years end, adultBasic provided low-cost, quality health insurance for nearly 3,000 individuals between 19 and 64 who were previously uninsured.

Today
Over the years, we have succeeded in good times and bad by earning the confidence of the many businesses and employees we are privileged to serve. Today, our membership is almost 600,000, a number that far outdistances even our closest competitor. But numbers alone tell only part of the story. At Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, we are most proud of our history and reputation for creating lasting relationships with the communities and businesses throughout our region. How have we managed that? Well, for one thing, we've never been content with yesterday's solutions. In fact, our history is marked by the implementation of timely and innovative measures designed to keep quality and affordable health care within your reach. Today, that commitment is evident in everything we do and in the wide range of health care options currently available to you and your organization.