Anthem Blue Cross 2001 Annual Report Download - page 5

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 5 of the 2001 Anthem Blue Cross annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 72

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72

health care. This was evident in the growth of our
national account business, which benefited from the
unique advantages of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association’s BlueCard program.
We already hold a leading market position
in seven of our eight states, yet we continue to
see growth opportunities. In addition, our Specialty
product lines are also positioned to offer new
opportunities to provide a wide variety of ancillary
employee benefits to our existing customers.
All key financial measurements improved
over the previous year. Net income, excluding net
realized gains and non-recurring items, increased
51 percent to $314.1 million, or $3.03 per share, for
fiscal year 2001. This compares with $209.1 million,
or $2.01 per share, in 2000. Operating revenue
increased 18 percent over 2000. Operating gain –
which reflects operating revenue less administrative
and benefit costs – rose by 74 percent. These results
clearly demonstrate our disciplined approach to
reducing administrative costs, managing benefit costs
and growing and retaining membership through
competitively priced products.
Our improved financial results led to the
upgrading of our credit ratings, and we arranged new
By becoming a public company and
establishing our access to the public capital markets,
we have increased our flexibility to grow our business.
In addition, we can further improve and expand our
service performance and quality initiatives, accelerate
the development of innovative new products, new
technologies and eBusiness capabilities, and improve
our financial performance.
Our corporate structure has changed, but
our goals and commitments have not. We have
demonstrated that Anthem is both one of the nation’s
largest diversified health benefits organizations
and an industry leader. All of the key metrics used
to judge our performance continued to show
steady improvement.
The health benefits industry continues to
consolidate, and we remain focused on growing
internally, as well as through acquisition. Membership
growth was strong in 2001. We now serve 7.9 million
members, a 10-percent increase over 2000 on a
same-store basis. This growth is due to recognizing
and meeting the needs of our diverse customer base
with competitively priced products. As the exclusive
Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in eight states, we
offer products that carry the most respected brand in
3