Independence Blue Cross, the biggest health insurer in the Philadelphia region, added 45,020 members last year, the first growth since 2008 for the Center City nonprofit, which serves nearly 3.1 million people.
IBC has yet to release comprehensive financial results for 2011, but president and chief executive Daniel J. Hilferty said the company continued its recovery from losses in 2008 and 2009 and expected to report an improvement over 2010, when it had a profit margin of 2.2 percent.
“We emerged from a difficult time,” Hilferty said. Beyond the disastrous economy, IBC faced fierce competition from Aetna and UnitedHealthcare and had to refocus after the long-planned merger with Highmark Inc. was called off in 2009.
Hilferty, who succeeded Joseph A Frick in the top job at IBC in December 2010, is excited about the future, regardless of whether federal health-care reform withstands Supreme Court scrutiny.
“We have enough income to invest in the technologies, the programs, the partnerships that we need … to truly transform the way health care is delivered, improve quality, and drive down costs,” he said.
