BATON ROUGE - Insurance company Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana announced Monday they are going to be acquired by Elevance Health, impacting 1.9 million policy holders. 

The company says the acquisition is supposed to be complete by the end of 2023. BCBSLA said their headquarters will remain in Baton Rouge and will keep its approximately 3,000 employees. 

The following statement was made by Blue Cross Blue Shield: 

This acquisition will unite two organizations deeply rooted in the communities they serve and aligned in a mission to improve whole health. Together they will continue to prioritize what is best for Louisiana’s members and customers by improving access, quality, affordability, and the experience that Louisianians have trusted for almost 90 years.

The combination builds on the existing collaboration in Louisiana through joint ownership of Healthy Blue, which serves Medicaid and Medicare Dual Eligible members. It will also accelerate BCBSLA’s strategic evolution to improve access, affordability and quality of services delivered by BCBSLA to the more than 1.9 million members they serve with capabilities developed by Elevance Health and its healthcare services organization, Carelon. With more than $4 billion invested over the past several years, Carelon delivers behavioral health, complex and chronic care programs, and innovative digital models.

“Elevance Health and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana will combine strengths to provide services unique to the needs of Louisiana to better serve members through a whole health personalized approach,” said Gail Boudreaux, President and CEO, Elevance Health. “As organizations aligned in our missions, we are excited at the opportunity to bring our leading, innovative whole-health solutions to BCBSLA’s members as we work together to become a lifetime, trusted health partner.”

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is a strong and vibrant company with a history of serving Louisianians for almost 90 years. However, to remain strong in today’s environment with an ability to provide leading innovations, products and capabilities, we concluded that we needed a partner that could help us deliver these faster and better than we could alone. Aligning with Elevance Health - a national health care organization that has been our trusted partner since 2017 - will allow us to accelerate our mission of improving the health and lives of Louisianians,” said I. Steven Udvarhelyi, M.D., president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana.

Like BCBSLA, Elevance Health believes healthcare is best when delivered locally, and following the transaction's close, the Louisiana plan headquarters will remain in Baton Rouge, and will continue to serve its customers locally through its workforce of approximately 3,000 employees. An additional benefit of this transaction will be the creation of a multibillion-dollar foundation, the Accelerate Louisiana Initiative. This foundation is being created to address the unique and complex needs of the people of Louisiana with the mission to improve the health and lives of the people of Louisiana by addressing health inequities and strengthening local communities.

The acquisition is expected to close later this year and is subject to customary closing conditions and receipt of certain required approvals. Upon closing, Elevance Health’s affiliated Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will now operate within 15 states across the country.