Bruce Japsen Senior Contributor 
Forbes
The venture capital arm of five Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans has partnered with global primary care provider Sanitas USA to open medical centers in Texas as a precursor to a U.S. multi-state rollout.
Initially, 10 “advanced primary care medical centers” will be opened in the Dallas and Houston markets via a joint venture of Sanitas, the majority owner, and Chicago-based HCSC Ventures, which holds a minority stake of less than 50%. HCSC Ventures is part of Health Care Service Corp., which owns Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas as well as Blues plans in Illinois, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Montana.
The Sanitas-HCSC venture will evaluate future expansion in the five-state region where Health Care Service owns Blues plans on a “market-by-market basis,” executives said. Financial terms of the relationship aren’t being disclosed, but those involved say Sanitas and HCSC Ventures will contribute capital to “fund the start-up of the medical centers and the joint venture will contract with Sanitas to operate the medical centers.”