BLUE CROSS-BLUE SHIELD OF MINNESOTA:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota was created in a June 1, 1972 merger of Minnesota Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. The organization and its affiliates provide a variety of products and services, including health plans for employers and individuals; life insurance; long-term care plans; pharmacy benefits management; administrative services for self-insured groups; managed care services for workers' compensation; behavioral health care; and health and wellness programs. It administers the federal Medicare programs, and serves as the writing carrier for the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association. It also offers a variety of other employee health benefits services through several for-profit subsidiaries. In 2004 it was the largest health plan in Minnesota, providing health coverage to more than 2.6 million members.

Minnesota Blue Cross was a nonprofit organization incorporated as the Minnesota Hospital Service Association. Organized by a group of Minnesota hospitals in 1933, it was Minnesota's first health plan and was based in St. Paul. The Association was one of the 90 approved non-profit plans in the United States and Canada, authorized by contracting hospitals to furnish hospital care through contracting hospitals to groups of employed persons and their families. These plans were known as "Blue Cross Plans" and each plan served a particular area. The contracting hospitals of the Minnesota Blue Cross Plan agreed to furnish hospital service according to the subscriber's contract and were reimbursed out of the monthly payments made by subscribers to the Minnesota Hospital Service Association. Minnesota Blue Cross operated as a non-profit corporation, and not under the state insurance laws. A companion plan, called Mii, incorporated in 1954 as Minnesota Indemnity, Inc. and organized under the insurance laws of Minnesota, helped pay for medical-surgical care. It was owned and operated by the Minnesota Hospital Service Association. These two organizations (MHSA/Blue Cross and Mii) made health care service on a pre-payment basis available to residents of Minnesota.

Minnesota Medical Service Inc., also known as Blue Shield of Minnesota, was a voluntary, non-profit surgical plan sponsored by the medical profession of Minnesota. It was for many years based in Minneapolis. Promotional work for subscribers enrollment in the Blue Shield Plan was carried on in conjunction with enrollment of Blue Cross subscribers. Blue Shield of Minnesota was formally organized in 1945 with its operating supervision being through the attorney general of Minnesota. Blue Shield benefits began to be sold in Minnesota in 1947.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield were separate organizations, with separate boards of directors and chief executive officers. The Blue Shield product was marketed by Blue Cross under an "expense sharing" contract. This arrangement continued through November 1959 when by mutual agreement the two decided to discontinue joint operations and become competitors. Shortly after this time Blue Cross began offering medical/surgical coverage through Mii. Blue Shield later entered the hospital coverage field with its Blue Shield Hospital Rider.

In April 1970 it was disclosed that Blue Shield was in serious financial difficulty, and Blue Cross was asked by the state insurance department, the attorney general, and the governor to assume operation of Blue Shield, which it agreed to do on April 27. A management agreement was implemented at that time, and the two plans operated under that agreement until May 17, 1972 when the corporate members of each body approved a formal merger of the two corporations into Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota effective June 1, 1972.

The historical information above was taken from Corporate Report Fact Book 2000, from the company's web site, and from materials found within the collection.

Return to top

Subject files include correspondence and memoranda; articles of incorporation and bylaws; employee newsletters; company-produced pamphlets, brochures, and promotional literature; employee and member handbooks; financial reports; statistical data; news releases (1965-1979); provider directories; sample contracts; and some speeches and writings. There are some proceedings of the Minnesota State Medical Association House of Delegates (1960). There is some historical information about Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota and its predecessor organizations; biographical data on the organizations' officers; information about special "enabling legislation" that pertained to the company, the company's role as a participant in the Medicare program, and information about the corporate merger (1972) of Minnesota Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. There are files containing information about health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Correspondents in the collection include officers and employees of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota and its predecessors, television and radio stations, and various other individuals.

Photographs include images of Twin Cities-area home office buildings of Blue Cross-Blue Shield and its predecessors, including photos of construction projects; photos of executives and employees; office scenes; the company's use of electronic data processing equipment; photographs of office parties, dinners, and picnics; and some photos of then-Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen apparently signing the "enabling legislation" (1941). There are photographs of hospital buildings, hospital administrators, medical staff, and patients. There are some negatives, and there is one sheet of color slides.

The collection includes magazine and newspaper advertisements that document various advertising campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s. There are several 16mm movies concerning health and wellness issues, and one video recording.

Contents of two time capsules from the 1950s and 1970 are also included.

Most of the material in the collection probably originated in the public relations department of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota.

Return to top

These documents are organized into the following sections:

Return to top

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,838; 17,928

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the film recordings and videocassettes are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original videocassettes were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into mov files.

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, October 2005; Leif Kopietz, April 2024 and August 2025

Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, January 2023.

Digital video transferred from the master film recordings and master videocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (January 2023).

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Boxes 142.G.15.2F-2 and 142.G.15.3B-1 were vacated after audiovisual material was rehoused or disposed.

Catalog ID number: 990037195320104294

Return to top

Return to top

Return to top

There are files of correspondence, miscellaneous papers, and other archival material about several other movies and television documentary programs (copies of which are not included in this collection) in the Subject Files record series, above.

Location

Internet

Every two seconds, undated. 1 master video file (14 minutes, 56 seconds): MOV (6.6 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (147.4 MB).

Taken from Jack Morton Productions compilation videocassette.

Digital video

Blue Cross protects you and your family, 1940s. 1 master video file (12 minutes, 38 seconds): MOV (5.6 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (124.4 MB).

Taken from Jack Morton Productions compilation videocassette.

Digital video

The common defense, 1940s. 1 master video file (15 minutes, 18 seconds): MOV (6 GB) and 1 user video file: MP4 (139.7 MB).

Taken from Jack Morton Productions compilation videocassette.

Digital video

Location

Shelf Q-10-D (Room B-105.7)

Three intro clips for drug abuse film, approximately 1970. 1 master film reel (4 minutes, 42 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (356.3 MB).

Contains footage of multiple takes.

Container note: Doctor Charles Neumeister, M.D.; 3 intro. cuts for B.S. Drug Films. Oct. 22 1968.

Digital version

Eat, drink and be wary, 1975. 1 master film reel (21 minutes, 47 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (1.6 GB).

Description from handout: This film examines the nutritional losses that result from processing and refining food, and increasing additives and sugar content in foods. A clever segment shows how many Twinkies and Tootsie Rolls we would eat if we filled our plates in proportion to the amount of advertising done for various kinds of foods.

Digital version

To your heart's content, 1982. 1 master film reel (26 minutes, 41 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (2 GB).

Digital version

Staying well, 1983. 1 master film reel (27 minutes, 28 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (2.1 GB).

Digital version

Alcohol and human physiology, 1984. 1 master film reel (23 minutes, 54 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (1.8 GB).

Description from handout: With clinical clarity, this film traces the effects of alcohol on the body's major organs and systems. Narrative and interviews with physicians and alcohol abusers create a lesson in chemistry, physiology, psychology, and sociology. Also discussed is the impairment of judgment and coordination that drinkers take with them behind the wheel of their cars and the incredibly risky business of mixing alcohol and other drugs.

Digital version

C.P.R.: A training film, 1986. 1 master film reel (29 minutes, 40 seconds): sound, color; 16mm. print, and 1 user video file: MP4 (2.2 GB).

Description from handout: This film teaches the specific techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It should be used for groups enrolled in CPR classes or as a refresher course. The film has been revised to meet the latest Red Cross and American Heart Association guidelines.

Digital version

Return to top

Return to top

Includes the contents of two time capsules discovered by staff of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota, one buried in the 1950s and one buried in February 1970. The capsules contain photographs, press clippings, annual reports, marketing pamphlets, blank copies of contracts, and other ephemera.

Return to top

Annual reports of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota and its predecessors are in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection.

A small collection of papers of the Minnesota Hospital Service Association are in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

Consult the catalog for the locations of other materials of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Minnesota and its predecessor organizations, which are found in a variety of formats in various Minnesota Historical Society collections.

Return to top

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Consolidation and merger of corporations -- Minnesota.

Health maintenance organizations -- Minnesota.

Hospital care -- Minnesota.

Hospitals -- Minnesota.

Insurance, Health -- Minnesota.

Medicare.

Nonprofit organizations -- Minnesota.

Insurance, Hospitalization -- Minnesota.

Medical care -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Johnson, Robert L., author.

Stassen, Harold E. (Harold Edward), 1907-2001.

Van Steenwyk, E. A. (Elmer A.), author.

Organizations:

Blue Cross Association, author.

Blue Shield of Minnesota, author.

Minnesota Blue Cross, author.

Minnesota Hospital Service Association, author.

Minnesota Indemnity, Inc., author

Minnesota Medical Service, Inc., author.

Minnesota State Medical Association, author.

Types of Documents:

Advertisements.

Motion pictures (visual works).

Photographs.

Video recordings (physical artifacts).

Return to top