A theoretical nonprofit corporation that enjoys tax exempt status for the purpose of underwriting hospital insurance coverage.
The nonprofit hospital care prepayment plan which was developed and sponsored by hospitals, and which originally was restricted to furnishing hospital care. Many BC plans have linked with their counterpart Blue Shield (BS) plans, which are physician sponsored, and which deal with physician (medical) care. Some 77 plans of each type, BC and BS, are in existence across the United States, and state statutes typically govern their operation. While plans are similar in principle, each one is autonomous; there are differences in policies, benefit structure, and administration from plan to plan. When the local BC and BS plans have linked, they are typically referred to jointly as Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BC/BS).
A nonprofit private insurance company that offers protection against costs of hospital treatment for members of a group. Members are assessed prepayment premiums that are adjusted periodically to represent current hospital use by those participating in the plan. Blue Cross originated in 1929 as a hospital insurance plan for teachers in Texas and was endorsed four years later by the American Hospital Association. There are about 70 different Blue Cross organizations in the US with an arrangment through a central Blue Cross Association that permits members of one plan to utilize services of another affiliated plan in a different geographic area.
A nonprofit medical care insurer in the U.S. The insurance is mostly for hospital services.