Pankau ready to take reins at Blue Cross S.C. [The State, Columbia, S.C.]

July 11--Health care is David Pankau's family business.

His father had a doctorate in health education, his mother was a hospital finance officer and his sister works coding hospital records.

Now Pankau, 46, is poised to become BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina's new chief executive next month.

"I consider myself very lucky to play a role to improve the lives of people living in South Carolina," he said when his appointment was announced in May.

Pankau, a Midwesterner who came to USC for graduate school and never left Columbia, arrived at BlueCross a year after retiring chief executive Ed Sellers took the top spot.

Pankau (pronounced PAN-CAW) has worked in a half-dozen roles in the company, which he said gave him a chance to see how different parts of BlueCross work -- from government programs to managed care -- and get comfortable with the organizational structure.

"I don't think the agenda changes Aug. 1," he said.

One of his first issues will be handling changes from health care reform legislation, which could win more business for the insurer but poses a chance the company might have to pay out more claims.

"There's a great deal of unknowns," he said. "I think we'll come out OK in the end."

Pankau said he will look to win more business servicing insurance plans and growing the company's government business, which includes working on Medicare and Defense Department claims processing work.

Pankau said he got a sense he could become chief executive when he was named to the company's No. 2 position in late 2009, just two years after taking over as president of the BlueCross BlueShield division from company veteran Tom Faulds.

Sellers said this is the second time Pankau is succeeding for "a larger-than-life figure" at the insurer.

Sellers noted that Pankau did well in succeeding Faulds, who spent 35 years at BlueCross, and should be able to repeat that now.

Pankau said Sellers has been helping him get to know business and community leaders around the state -- a role BlueCross embraces as one of the state's largest home-grown employers.

"People tend to underestimate what we do from a business and civic perspective," Pankau said. "Anything is South Carolina; we tend to be involved with."

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