Governance
At Alberta Blue Cross®, our Mission is to provide supplementary health care and related benefit programs and services, on a viable, not-for-profit basis, for the financial protection and well-being of our publics.
Legislative framework
Our mission is firmly grounded in the unique legislative framework that established the Alberta Blue Cross Plan® more than 70 years ago—and continues to provide a clear mandate for our organization today and into the future.
Alberta hospitals sponsored the formation of the Alberta Blue Cross Plan® in 1948. Under an Act of the Alberta Legislature, the Associated Hospitals of Alberta was incorporated and permitted to establish a voluntary, pre-paid, not-for-profit Blue Cross® plan.
Over the years, as Albertans’ health care needs changed Alberta Blue Cross® evolved to meet those needs—with supplementary benefit plans for services such as prescription drugs, dental care, ambulance service, vision care, home nursing and other health-related benefits.
By the 1990s, less than one per cent of Alberta Blue Cross® business related to hospital claims. Changes in Alberta’s health care system further outdated the original legislation governing the operation of the Alberta Blue Cross Plan®. In response, the Alberta government replaced the governance legislation with a new stand-alone act, the ABC Benefits Corporation Act, effective December 1, 1996.
The ABC Benefits Corporation Act, as amended in 2004, sets out the purposes under which Alberta Blue Cross® continues its operations. Alberta Blue Cross®'s mission is in line with these purposes
(a) to initiate, own, participate in or operate projects, plans, or programs, and to provide related services, that are intended or designed to improve the health and well-being of the residents of Alberta and other customers of the Corporation;
(b) to provide or arrange for the provision of supplementary health benefit programs and related or associated benefit programs and services.
Under this legislation, Alberta Blue Cross® submits an annual report to the Minister responsible for the Act.