Highmark’s senior leader in the region hopes the recently completed merger between Blue Cross of Northeast Pennsylvania and the larger Pittsburgh-based health insurance company will help slow down health care cost increases and grow jobs in the area.
Senior vice president Brian Rinker said the buildings at 19 and 70 N. Main St. in downtown Wilkes-Barre will remain key operations. He hopes the merger will also help the company now occupy a vacant building it owns at 169 N. Pennsylvania Ave., which he said is “well-suited and ready for business” and a good place to add jobs.
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield serves about 3.2 million members and employs more than 4,700 people in northeastern and western Pennsylvania. More than 700 of those employees are in Northeast Pennsylvania.
As part of the agreement, Highmark will maintain a “reasonable” level of jobs, but Mr. Rinker said that will depend on the amount of business. He hopes the company will continue to be a market leader and grow jobs.
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“We’re hopeful we’re larger here in Northeastern Pennsylvania over time,” he said.
Customers who purchased Blue Cross products before July will not see changes from the merger until they renew their health insurance plans in January. Customers who purchased in July will keep their plans until next July, Mr. Rinker said. Benefits, doctors and phone numbers will remain the same until then.
Beginning next year, customers will choose Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield products that will be “similar but not the same” to what they have now, Mr. Rinker said. Premiums, deductibles and co-pays will be based upon the policies customers choose, he said.
“What we’re hoping is that Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield will have better resources to manage health care costs over time,” Mr. Rinker said. “That would be the benefits of a larger company. We think we’re in a position to manage them better.”
Mr. Rinker, 54, formerly was senior vice president and chief administrator officer at Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
He was paid a yearly salary of $66,675 plus a $21,006 bonus for a total compensation of $87,681 in 2013, the most recent figures available, according to Ronald Ruman, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.
Mr. Rinker would not provide his current salary. Salary information for Highmark executives are listed in the company’s financial filings, which are submitted to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department at the end of each year, said Highmark spokesman Anthony Matrisciano.
A Wilkes-Barre native, Mr. Rinker holds a bachelor’s degree from King’s College and a master’s degree in health administration from Wilkes University. He lives in Forty Fort with his wife, Lisa.
He said his primary goals in his new position are to convert the business as “seamlessly as we can for customers” and to ensure the transition is “as least disruptive as possible.”
Date: August 12, 2015