Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will join more than 20 other Blue Cross plans across the country in what is expected to be the nation's largest health-care information database.

The project, called Blue Health Intelligence, will provide employers inquiring about Blue Cross plans with national health-care data on more than 79 million members.

The information will be used to provide national benchmarks that employers can use to determine how their employees' health compares nationally, and what insurance products would work best for them.

The project, initiated by the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, will include information from members in 34 states. More are expected to join later.

"For our employers who will make use of the data, they'll sit down with a Blue Cross account rep who will query the database for them," says Kyle Marshall, a spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. "This information will be able to be accessed online."

The national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is working out how it will make the information available to the broader public. The database could prove invaluable to federal agencies and policymakers as they struggle with the escalating costs of health care.

"It's a great decision-making tool," Marshall says. "If you need to address a certain health-care condition, you can get the data you need to design a program that meets your health-care needs."

Chapel Hill-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is the state's largest insurer, serving nearly 3.3 million people.

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