Blue Cross of California Statement

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross of California
highly values the trust of its members and understands the personal
relationship members have with their physicians and medical groups. It is our
responsibility to ensure all member records are accurate and up to date both
for the benefit of our members and the providers in our HMO network. One of
the ways we do this is to send the member's application for medical coverage
to the physicians to ensure that it mirrors what is reflected in the
physician's notes for that member. This notification process has been in
place for several years and to date we have not received any calls or letters
of concern.
However, we are now aware that the California Medical Association has some
concerns regarding a cover letter that accompanies the applications. Today we
reached out to our provider partners and California regulators and determined
this letter is no longer necessary and, in fact, was creating a misimpression
and causing some members and providers undue concern. As a result, we are
discontinuing the dissemination of this letter going forward.
To put the dissemination of this letter in context, it pertained to a
small fraction (.0015 percent) of our more than 8 million Blue Cross members.
SOURCE Blue Cross of California

Shannon Troughton of Blue Cross of California, +1-317-488-6789,
+1-404-267-3651