July 14, 2009-Bismarck Tribune

Von Ebers, 56, is currently a consultant for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and lives in Rochester, N.Y. He was chosen from a pool of 43 applicants and will begin full-time work as the leader of North Dakota’s largest insurer by Sept. 1.

The applicant pool was narrowed to four finalists by the Chicago-based search firm the Pace Group. Dennis Elbert, chairman of the board of directors for the Blues in North Dakota, said the board interviewed von Ebers and unanimously decided to hire him last week, calling him a “well-respected industry veteran.”

Elbert said von Ebers will be paid $500,000 annually a figure that he said is comparable to other executives in similar positions and regions.

Von Ebers earned a salary of $808,321 in 2007 as chief operating officer of Excellus Health Blue Cross Blue Shield in Rochester, according to the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse.

From 2005, von Ebers served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Excellus Health Blue Cross Blue Shield and Univera health plans in Rochester. He also holds a master’s in business administration in finance and hospital administration from the University of Chicago.

Von Ebers has 38 years of experience with Blue Cross Blue Shield, including executive positions in Iowa and Illinois. He also has run his own health care consulting business.

Von Ebers said he and his wife and five children will move to Fargo in the coming weeks after he winds down his current consulting position.

The Blues board of directors fired its former CEO, Mike Unhjem, in March amid public criticism after the company took 33 employees to the Cayman Islands as a reward while the insurer was seeking rate increases.

Unhjem left the company after 18 years with a $2.2 million severance package and a 2008 compensation of $706,344 from the Blues and $372,215 from other sources, according to the state insurance department.

Blues Executive Vice President Tim Huckle has served the interim president and CEO since March.

During the Monday press conference in Fargo, von Ebers acknowledged the “troubled waters the organization has gone though,” and said steps are being taken internally to address them.

He added the most important issue for the company to tackle is the cost and quality of health care for the more than 449,000 people covered by BCBS of North Dakota.

The national debate over health care reform will also be among the top priorities for the company to address, von Ebers said.

Von Ebers met with state Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm on Monday and said he wants to have a collaborative relationship with him.

For about a year, Hamm has butted heads with the Blues over requested rate increases for individual and group rates.

The insurance department ultimately approved a 7.9 percent rate increase for group polices in May after the Blues originally requested a 14.9 percent hike last fall.

“He’s an elected official who’s been asked by the citizens of North Dakota to keep an eye on the cost of health insurance,” von Ebers said. “I am confident we can find a way to protect the citizens of North Dakota and the financial viability of the Blue Cross Blue Shield organization.”

Hamm said he and von Ebers will sit down in the coming weeks for a substantive meeting about the issues facing the Blues and its relationship with policy holders and the insurance department.

“I think he’s got a big job ahead of him, a company that has 90 percent of the health insurance market in North Dakota,” Hamm said. “And you have a company that has been under fairly intense public criticism over the last few months.”

Elbert said von Ebers will be on a rolling three-year contract, and his performance will be reviewed every year.