Could we start out with a quick overview of Trigon?
Mr. Snead: Trigon Healthcare is the Blue Cross Blue Shield company in Virginia. We’ve been in business for over 65 years. We’re the largest health plan in Virginia, serving more than 2 million members. We have over 30% market share and about 37% of the commercial premium in Virginia. Our next largest competitor has about 6%. We are the only health plan with statewide networks. About half of our membership is fully insured, or commercial, and the other half is self-funded whereby the employer takes the insurance risk. TWST: What is the outlook on healthcare costs and premiums? Mr. Snead: From where we sit, the outlook has never been bright.er Over the last two years we have renewed more than 95% of our group customers, which is probably the highest retention rate in the industry. We have very satisfied customers here, and there are several reasons for that. We give them a lot of choice. We give them very good service, and we give them, we believe, a reasonable price, so they recognize a
