BCBS Needs Serious Help, from Social Media & Otherwise!

Today when I logged onto the Fargo Forum online, I experienced a sickening sense of déjà vu. Just six short months ago, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota was on the front page of the paper for spending excessive amounts of money on a bonus trip for some employees. About a week later, they were on the front page again when they fired their longtime president and CEO Mike Unjehm. Now they are making headlines again with the findings of a financial audit report that was done.

The last time I wrote about Blue Cross Blue Shield, the moral of my blog was that they were experiencing a public relations nightmare and needed assistance quickly. Today, the moral of my blog remains the same, but with different tactics employed!

As a member of the youngest generation that is currently paying for healthcare, the findings of the audit report revealed in today’s paper disgust me. How can they justify spending millions of dollars in bonuses that they received by raising the premiums of those people that can least afford it? How do they justify paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries each year to at least 10 employees while others are thanking their lucky stars that they still have jobs?

Blue Cross Blue Shield needs to invest their money in a damn good public relations campaign. They need to start building trust with their premium payers, especially those like me from the younger generation. I am going to need health insurance for a lot of years yet, and seeing things like this in the newspaper does not make me feel very good about sticking with BCBS.

BCBS needs to use this campaign to address their issues truthfully as well as what they intend on doing to alleviate those issues. These messages need to be sent out via every available source, so that people from every generation have equal opportunity of viewing them. Not only do they need a good media relations department to talk to the media, they also need a department that can wield the tools of social media.

Even though updating the public on the status of the report is probably not on the forefront of their mind, it is a step I feel they should take in the interest of being open and honest. Videos should be sent out through YouTube; a blog should be started where executives correspond with premium payers; and they could livecast any important information using SHOUTcast or Live 365.

With a lot of hard work, I honestly feel that their situation is redeemable. If they make a concerted, public effort to face their wrongdoings and reverse some of their bad decisions, they can remain as my insurance company!