Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina health insurance review and ratings 2024

BCBS of North Carolina, No. 7 on Insure.com’s Best Health Insurance Companies list, ranked well for customer satisfaction, quality and trustworthiness, earning the insurer 3.86 out of 5 stars.

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Our Take

Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina ranked No. 7 in our ranking of the best health insurance companies. 

In Insure.com’s survey of insurance consumers, 85% of the BCBS of North Carolina customers who responded gave the company high customer satisfaction scores. It was also one of the most trusted insurers in our ranking.

BCBS of North Carolina also offers a good variety of policy offerings. Our survey found that almost 80% of members are satisfied with the policies offered by the company. 

The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) gave BCBS of North Carolina a score of 3.75 out of 5 stars, which was the fourth-highest rating for all insurers in our study. The NCQA rates health insurance plans based on factors such as quality of care and patient experience.

Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.

BCBS of North Carolina
BCBS of North Carolina Ratings
Overall Rating: 3.9
Price/Affordability: 3.7
NCQA: 3.75
Customer Satisfaction: 4.1
AM Best Rating: NR

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Good customer satisfaction ratings
  • Rated highly for its policy offerings
  • One of the highest policyholder renewal rating
Cons:
  • Its customers didn’t rate its provider network highly
  • It didn’t score well for price/affordability

How much does BCBS of North Carolina insurance cost?

BCBS of North Carolina earned 3.67 out of 5 stars for price/affordability. Kaiser Permanente led this category.

Insurance companyPrice/affordability stars 
BCBS of North Carolina3.67
Kaiser Permanente4.34
Blue Shield of California3.54

The cost of health insurance from BCBS of North Carolina depends on the specific plan you purchase. Here are the average rates for several plans in North Carolina for a 40-year-old male in excellent health with an annual salary of $70,000:

Insurance companyRate/MonthPlan
BCBS of North Carolina$369.27Blue Home Bronze Standard | with UNC Health Alliance – EPO
BCBS of North Carolina$482.41Blue Home Silver Standard | with UNC Health Alliance – EPO
BCBS of North Carolina$493.05Blue Home Gold Standard | with UNC Health Alliance – EPO

How BCBS of North Carolina scores for customer satisfaction

Customers of BCBS of North Carolina gave it high marks for customer satisfaction. In our study, 85% of BCBS of North Carolina plan members said they were satisfied with the company overall. The company earned 4.1 stars out of a possible 5 in this category.

However, BCBS of North Carolina didn’t rate as highly for overall customer satisfaction by J.D. Power in the South Atlantic region. The company’s score was 727 (out of 1,000), just a bit below the area’s average of 733.

Insurance companyCustomer satisfaction starsJ.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000)
BCBS of North Carolina4.06727
Kaiser Permanente4.45785
UnitedHealthcare 4.06735

How BCBS of North Carolina scores for policy offerings

Almost 80% of survey respondents said they were satisfied with BCBS of North Carolina’s policy offerings, which is one of the highest scores in this category. Some companies that had better scores for policy offerings include BCBS of Michigan, which led this category

Insurance companyPercent of customers who score their health insurance company highly for policy offerings
BCBS of North Carolina79%
BCBS of Michigan88%
Blue Shield of California69%

Would customers recommend BCBS of North Carolina to others?

Most BCBS of North Carolina plan members would recommend the company to other health insurance shoppers. Our survey showed that 88% of current members would suggest this company. BCBS of Michigan topped this category, with all BCBS of Michigan customers who responded to our survey saying they would tell others about the company.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who would recommend their health insurance company to others
BCBS of North Carolina88%
BCBS of Michigan100%
BCBS of Florida73%

How trustworthy is BCBS of North Carolina?

When asked whether BCBS of North Carolina is a trustworthy health insurance company, 76% of survey respondents said yes. While it’s not the highest score in this category, it is above the average rating for the companies we ranked. Kaiser Permanente had the highest trust score.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who say they trust their health insurance company
BCBS of North Carolina76%
Kaiser Permanente86%
Blue Shield of California74%

Do current BCBS of North Carolina customers plan to renew?

Just about every one of BCBS of North Carolina plan members said they plan to renew their health insurance policy for another year. With good customer satisfaction and a great selection of policy offerings, it makes sense why so many BCBS of North Carolina plan members want to keep their policy. BCBS of Michigan and Highmark led this category.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who plan to renew with their health insurance company
BCBS of North Carolina91%
BCBS of Michigan 98%
Highmark98%

How BCBS of North Carolina scores for digital experience

Only 18% of survey respondents said they were satisfied with the digital experience that BCBS of North Carolina provides. But it should be noted, none of the companies in our survey did especially well here.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company’s digital experience
BCBS of North Carolina 18%
Kaiser Permanente 32%
BCBS of Michigan 17%

How BCBS of North Carolina scores for deductibles

In our survey of health insurance customers, we asked people if they were satisfied with their health insurance provider’s deductibles. Only 27% of respondents gave BCBS of North Carolina a high mark, tied for sixth place in this category with BCBS of Michigan and Humana. But this was another category in which none of the ranked companies did well. Aetna, Cigna and HCSC were in a three-way tie at the top of this category, with 31% of each company’s customers giving it a good grade here.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company for low deductibles
BCBS of North Carolina 27%
BCBS of Florida 30%
Blue Shield of California 26%

How BCBS of North Carolina scores for its provider network

BCBS of North Carolina doesn’t have the best score for provider networks. Just 18% of survey respondents said they were happy with the company’s provider network, which is the group of doctors and hospitals that provide discounted medical services to plan members. Choosing a company with a small network means you may have fewer options for doctors and medical facilities. Molina led this category, but this was another area in which none of the companies we ranked did especially well.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company’s provider network
BCBS of North Carolina 18%
Molina 31%
Kaiser Permanente 14%

BCBS of North Carolina health insurance coverage options

● Individual and family health insurance plans

● Medicare

● Medicaid (Healthy Blue)

● Group health insurance

Other BCBS of North Carolina services

● Dental insurance

● Vision insurance

● Blue365 discount program

States where BCBS of North Carolina offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where BCBS of North Carolina offers coverage
North Carolina
AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
Available
Not available

Company background

BCBS of North Carolina

Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of North Carolina was established in 1933 and is headquartered in Durham, N.C. Currently, the company serves more than 4.3 million customers.

In addition to its online services, BCBS of North Carolina also has 10 physical locations across the state where you can enroll in a plan, speak with a specialist, participate in fitness classes, and more.

BCBS of North Carolina has a strong corporate social responsibility program and has donated more than $200 million to local organizations through the Blue Cross NC Foundation.

Resources and Methodology

Sources:

J.D. Power. “Commercial Health Plan Member Satisfaction Declines in Key Areas.” J.D. Power Finds.” Accessed February 2024.

NAIC. “BCBS of NC Inc National Complaint Index Report.” Accessed February 2024.

Blue Cross NC. “About us.” Accessed February 2024.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2023 surveyed more than 1,750 insurance consumers (1,433 people with health insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR. 

Respondents were asked to name their insurer and then grade it in a number of categories, including ease of service and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.

In addition, the editors also created star rankings for each company. Respondents were asked to pick their insurer’s top three attributes out of the more than the dozen they were presented – including categories such as customer satisfaction and price/affordability. The number of responses for each of those attributes was totaled and then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create the star ranking.

Respondents were also asked if they would recommend their insurer to someone else and if they planned to renew their policies. The percentage who said yes is presented in the results.

They also were given the statement “I trust my insurance company” and asked if they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. The percentage of those who said they agreed or strongly agreed is presented in the results.

The editors compiled the survey results and then selected – based on the number of survey responses – the top companies for further evaluation. Insure.com needed 30 or more of a health insurer’s customers to respond to the survey for a company to be included in the ranking.

They then collected AM Best financial stability ratings and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) ratings, which evaluate health plans on, among other things, member satisfaction.

With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., managing director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For health insurers, we used the following weights to calculate the overall score for each company: 

  • Survey – 60% of total score (10% for customer satisfaction, 10% trustworthiness, 10% for recommending the carrier to another, 10% if a respondent would renew with their current insurer, and 20% if they consider their insurer the best for affordability)
  • AM Best – 25% of total score
  • NCQA – 15% of total score

Each insurer was awarded from 1 to 5 stars. No insurer in our star ranking received less than 1 star and the highest possible ranking is 5 stars.

On company review pages, the editors compared the profiled insurers in various categories against the leaders in that category or against other top insurers that match up well against the profiled company in terms of size and/or coverage area.

author image
Elizabeth Rivelli
Contributing Researcher

 
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Elizabeth Rivelli is a freelance writer who covers various insurance topics. Her areas of expertise are life insurance, car insurance, property insurance and health insurance. Elizabeth’s byline has appeared in dozens of online publications, including Investopedia, CNET and Bankrate. She has also written for several insurance carriers.

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