Chief Medical Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas Honored With Peavy Award

Richardson, TX — Today, the 2011 James E. Peavy Memorial Award was presented to Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, vice president and chief medical officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, by the Texas Public Health Association.  This award is the Texas Public Health Association's highest accolade for outstanding health professionals, and it serves as a living memorial to James E. Peavy, M.D., who served as Commissioner of Health in Texas from 1959 until his retirement in 1975.

The James E. Peavy Memorial Award is presented annually to the public health worker in Texas who has made significant contributions to the advancement of public health knowledge or practice or who has demonstrated a genuine concern for the health needs of society.  Dr. Sanchez was nominated for the award by Dr. Ron Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Sanchez served as Commissioner of Health in Texas from 2001 to 2006 and was a founder and first president of the Texas Association of Local Health Officials.  The many boards and commissions he now chairs include:  the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health External Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Commission on Prevention Priorities (NCPP).

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas -- the only statewide, customer-owned health insurer in Texas — is the largest provider of health benefits in the state, working with nearly 40,000 physicians and 400 hospitals to serve 4.6 million members in all 254 counties.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is a Division of Health Care Service Corporation (which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Texas, Illinois, Oklahoma and New Mexico), the country's largest customer-owned health insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall.  Health Care Service Corporation is a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

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