JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—A three-pronged approach to catastrophes helps Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida deal with whatever Mother Nature delivers.

It's no static approach, either, said John Phelps, director of business risk solutions for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based health insurer.

“It's not just a hurricane plan, it is a business continuity plan and emergency management plan,” Mr. Phelps said. “The idea is you have an emergency, you mange that, and you move into business continuity, which is restoring the business. It's constantly improving the program as changes happen in the business. We're looking to make changes to increase efficiency. We're constantly pruning the vine for these programs.”

The Blues have a triad of plans—an emergency management plan, a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan—to cope with catastrophes. The disaster recovery plan involves plans to restore data, connectivity and computing equipment. The business continuity plan deals with people, safety, logistics and locations. The emergency management plan, which Mr. Phelps heads, is designed to provide an immediate emergency response to any severe event.

He said the formalization of the plans started with 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which devastated parts of South Florida. At the time, the Blues only had a data center recovery plan, which is now referred to as the disaster recovery plan, Mr. Phelps said.

As the Blues have grown, their approach to catastrophe management has grown more comprehensive. The Blues have 19 offices and 11 retail stores across Florida. The retail locations provide a variety of services, and a few have a contracted with primary care physicians on-site in a separate clinic.

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“Our priorities are employees, customers, operations and assets,” Mr. Phelps said. “On the employee front, for a hurricane we have the benefit of knowing approximately where that could strike within a three-day window, so we can determine whether we have to close or whether there are safety issues like power lines down.”

He said the Blues have enhanced off-site work capability so employees can work from home if need be. After the storm passes, the Blues will offer aid to employees. For example, the company can provide small short-term loans if employees cannot access cash.

The Blues have a toll-free telephone number for employee information to communicate before, during and after a hurricane or other catastrophe strikes Florida, he said. The company also maintains an externally hosted emergency communications system that can reach cellphones, home phones and emails—every form of communication “short of a carrier pigeon,” he said.

Mr. Phelps said in addition to the formal plan the company will do many things outside the plan, if doing so improves the safety of employees or restores critical needed services to its customers. For example, post-hurricane, the company in the past has provided hot food for employees when there are no power or open restaurants, Mr. Phelps said.

The Blues also have a couple of levels of emergency power in operation, he said, as well as an inland data center.

“From a risk management standpoint, it's one of the sweetest pieces of concrete you're ever going to find,” he said of the data center. The company also has hot-site backup capability through an outside vendor.

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Mr. Phelps said the Blues have identified key business areas and have determined a recovery time objective. “In other words, how long can we go without that function?” he said.

By going through an analysis, the Blues have determined which business functions need to be restored within given time frames after a catastrophe.

“Those business functions have developed a business continuity plan to make sure they will be up and running within their time frame,” he said. He said the Blues have a repository for all of those plans through a vendor that is hosted off-site and out of state.

Hurricanes, tornadoes and tropical storms are just some of the perils the catastrophe plans have been assigned to address, Mr. Phelps said. Through acquisitions, the Blues have become responsible for locations in other states including California, Pennsylvania and Texas.

He said the Pennsylvania locations raise new challenges about dealing with perils, such as ice storms and blizzards, that do not affect Florida.

“I have personally managed responses to hundreds of events, floods, fires, hurricanes, suspicious substances and many other incidents that you normally wouldn't associate with an office occupancy,” he said.