Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is providing rebates totaling $48.2 million to customers who bought individual policies for 2019, company officials said Monday.

The checks, averaging $367 a person, reflect the pre-COVID era. But executives said the refunds were a sign that their strategy to lower health care costs was paying dividends.

Newark-based Horizon is the state's biggest health insurance company, with 3.4 million members. The rebates, put in the mail this month, are for 131,520 members who had individual plans.

The checks are arriving as the health care industry grapples with the financial impact of COVID-19 — a pandemic that is hurting hospitals' bottom lines, but could put more money in consumers' pockets at least in the short run.

Read more at MyCentralJersey.com.