Before the consultations began, the Blue Cross board indefinitely suspended compensation for directors, and there are no plans to reinstate the pay.
Dreyfus said he sees the Boston-based insurance carrier as a hybrid organization- more a nonprofit business than a public charity. Its research showed that, while many insurers have a nonprofit status, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is the only health plan in the nation classified as a public charity.
But he added that he and Blue Cross directors determined that their top priority should be reining in escalating health care costs. Seeking a change in the carrier’s legal classification could prove a time-consuming distraction, he said.
“We’re a nonprofit business, which might sound oxymoronic in one sense,’’ Dreyfus said during an interview with The Boston Globe’s editorial board. “But that’s who we are.’’
From the start, Dreyfus took off the table the possibility of Blue Cross converting to a for-profit health insurance company, citing its foundation, its role in health care public policy, and its history in a state where health insurance has long been dominated by nonprofits. One possibility it considered was becoming a nonprofit mutual insurer owned by its nearly 3 million members.
That would have required a new law because there is nothing in the Massachusetts statutes permitting such a legal structure. Dreyfus said many community leaders agreed that Blue Cross’s time and resources would be better spent concentrating on building alternative insurance plans that could help the state hold down health costs.
The community leaders, who included government officials, employers, business people, and representatives of advocacy groups, were asked about their view of the Blue Cross role in the health care system.
