Business of the Year: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in NH

As the largest health insurer in NH, Anthem insures or administers health benefits for more than 346,000 Granite Staters. It is the only insurer in the state to serve all customer segments—individual, small group, large group and Medicare.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield was the only insurer in NH to offer health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange when it started in 2014 and is the only one that has offered plans on the exchange in every year since.

During the pandemic, Anthem waived cost shares for COVID-19 testing and treatment as well as cost shares for any telehealth visits. It implemented an online symptom assessment tool and a COVID-19 test site finder. Anthem also provided financial support to ConvenientMD to launch the state’s first high-volume COVID-19 testing site at the Pease International Tradeport in March 2020.

“If the pandemic taught us anything, it was how to streamline and be more efficient and meet our customers and vendors where they are at from a technology perspective,” says NH President Maria Proulx. In addition to the rise of telehealth, Anthem invested in digital ID cards and an app, Sydney, to allow clients to find answers to questions about their benefits, she says. Anthem’s SmartShopper program, offered exclusively to groups in NH, provides financial incentives to members when they voluntarily choose high-quality, lower-cost providers.

Anthem also invests in communities across NH as does its more than 400 employees the state and their families. “Working with nonprofits is core to who we are,” Proulx says.

In 2022, Anthem and its foundation invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in NH communities through grants and sponsorships. With matches from Anthem’s foundation, associates in NH donated nearly $200,000 to 94 charitable causes in 2022 (a 12% increase over 2021) and volunteered 884 hours.

A grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation to the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils’ Don’t Quit! program helped fund new fitness facilities in three NH schools. Anthem also recently provided a grant to the March of Dimes to conduct a training program for Elliot Health System providers to improve patient-provider communications and combat implicit biases that can affect maternal care.

“Our vision of Anthem is to be a lifetime trusted partner,” Proulx says. “I truly believe what differentiates us most is we are national in scale, but we are here locally.”