BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee is the largest health benefit plan company in

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. It is an independent,

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

organization governed by its own

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. The organization is part of a nationwide association of

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

plans licensed by the

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, also known as BCBS, BCBSA, or The Blues, is a United States–based federation with 33 independent and locally operated BCBSA companies that provide health insurance to more than 115 million people in the U ...

History

BlueCross was founded in 1945 when Roy McDonald saw the need to establish a payment system that would benefit Erlanger Hospital, now the Erlanger Health System. On October 2, 2009, 57 computer hard drives were stolen from Blue Cross, some containing Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and medical information. Some of them contain Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and medical information. In 2012, the company was fined $1.5 million over the data breach."US health insurer fined $1.5m over 2009 data breach"
Naked Security; March 15, 2012]

References

{{Reflist Financial services companies established in 1945 Health maintenance organizations Companies based in Chattanooga, Tennessee Members of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Medical and health organizations based in Tennessee