BLUE CROSS HEALTHY IN MISSOURI

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri showed a profit of $23.8 million for the first eight months of this year.

The giant health care insurer, based in St. Louis, normally releases financial figures only at the end of each fiscal year.

The company decided to disclose its finances Thursday to reassure Blue Cross customers in light of recent reports of financial woes and mismanagement at the West Virginia Blue Cross and Blue Shield group.

The West Virginia insurer went bankrupt in October 1990, prompting national media attention and an ongoing investigation of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield system by a U.S. Senate subcommittee headed by Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.

The panel is examining not only the West Virginia situation, but also the finances of the other 72 Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans.

ABC television's "Nightline" program Wednesday night dealt with the West Virginia insurer.

On Thursday, the Cape Girardeau Blue Cross office received a number of calls from both individual and business customers who expressed concern about the financial health of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri.

"This morning, I was having customers calling saying, `Hey, are you all going broke?'" said Blue Cross regional manager Gary Johnson. "We have had a lot of questions from senior citizens."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri sells more Medicare supplement insurance than any other insurer in the state. Senior citizens, said Johnson, are naturally concerned about the financial soundness of their insurance coverage.

But Johnson said customers here have nothing to worry about.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri is in sound financial shape "almost embarrassingly so," he said.

Johnson said the money is put back in the company's reserves.

In a prepared statement from the company's corporate offices in St. Louis, Blue Cross officials said the company now has a total surplus of $158.1 million, the equivalent of 2.52 months of benefits and administrative expenses.

State insurance regulations require insurers to have a reserve equivalent to two months of administrative and benefit expenses.

"With the recent national focus on questions about the solvency of some insurers, it's important that our clients, our groups, our members and our providers know that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri is fiscally sound," said Roy Heimburger, company president and chief executive officer.

"We are strong financially and growing stronger," he added.

The insurer gained $15.3 million from operations in the first eight months of this year and $8.5 million after taxes from the sale of its headquarters building in St. Louis.

Johnson said Blue Cross sold the building to Washington University, which wanted the facility for expansion of its medical school.

As part of the deal, the university has given another building to Blue Cross, which plans to move its corporate offices into the renovated structure in February, Johnson said.

From January through August, income from Blue Cross insurance premiums totaled more than $523 million. Claims expenses totaled $448.1 million, or 86 cents out of every premium dollar, company officials said.

"It's unfortunate that the press concentration on the troubles of West Virginia has misled and frightened people across the country about the safety of their Blue Cross and Blue Shield benefits," Heimburger said.

"What happened in West Virginia," Heimburger said, "was the product of complex factors, not the least of which was a state regulatory climate in which hospital rate increases were regularly and routinely approved by the state while rate increases needed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of West Virginia to pay those growing hospital bills were delayed or denied.

"We do not have that kind of regulatory system or regulatory breakdown in Missouri," said Heimburger. "What happened to West Virginia will not happen to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri."

He pointed out that there are many financially sound Blue Cross plans across the country, which continue to provide dependable health insurance for their subscribers.

"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri is one of those," said Heimburger, "and we want to make sure that truth isn't lost in the confusion created by the media attention to the localized problems of a very few plans."

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri serves a large region of Missouri, comprised of the city of St. Louis and 84 Missouri counties.