Health Care Service Corporation Named A 2016 World's Most Ethical Company By The Ethisphere Institute

CHICAGO, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the nation's largest customer-owned health insurer operating Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as a 2016 World's Most Ethical Company®.

The Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, recognized HCSC for its broad range of ethics and compliance initiatives including, but not limited to, programs focused on social and environmental responsibility, governance practices, effective training modules, communications, monitoring and auditing procedures, risk assessment and leadership endeavors.

Notable accomplishments by HCSC include an award-winning storytelling approach to ethics and compliance training that features its employees in fictional "role play" situations. This series of simulations shows employees how to respond when ethical questions arise and where to go for help when they need to make difficult decisions. The company was also honored for its multifaceted privacy campaign that develops awareness measures aimed at proactively guarding against data breaches, as well as its outcomes-based community initiatives through the Healthy Kids, Healthy Families® program, sustainability and volunteer efforts.

"Today, especially with so many new health care consumers, all of us have to continue to earn the trust of members, providers and other key stakeholders. The foundation of that trust is demonstrating our core values of integrity, respect, commitment and caring," said Paula Steiner, president and chief executive officer, HCSC. "Recognition for our commitment to ethical business practices honors the hard work of our employees to uphold the high levels of truth and integrity when doing business in our local communities."

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ethisphere and the World's Most Ethical Companies designation, which recognize companies that align principle with action, work tirelessly to make trust part of their corporate DNA, and in doing so, shape future industry standards by introducing tomorrow's best practices today. The program honors companies that excel in promoting ethical business standards and practices internally, enabling managers and employees to make good choices.

"Integrity is one of the things we want to be known for, and that's why it's one of our core values," said Tom Lubben, senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer, HCSC "Our commitment to operating with integrity includes ensuring our employees are empowered to uphold our strong internal practices and that they know where to find the tools they need to help navigate challenging situations." 

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ (EQ)framework developed over years of research and vetted and refined by the expert advice from Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel. The EQ offers a quantitative way to assess a company's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics.

The full list of the 2016 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at
http://worldsmostethicalcompanies.ethisphere.com/honorees/.

About Health Care Service Corporation
Health Care Service Corporation is the country's largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall, with more than 15 million members in its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. A Mutual Legal Reserve Company, HCSC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, please visit HCSC.com, visit our Facebook page or follow us at www.twitter.com/HCSC.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere magazine. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com.

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SOURCE Health Care Service Corporation

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