Hospital Saving Association

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• The Hospital Saving Association, 1935–1951

1. March 1935 Dr. I. H. Manning leads the founding of the Hospital Saving Association After a 1933-1934 study of hospital care for people of small means, the Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina, known as the Chapel Hill Blue Cross plan, was incorporated in March 1935. Dr. Isaac H. Manning, longtime medical dean, was its leading figure and its president from the start. By September 1935 it had its headquarters in the South Building in Chapel Hill, with Felix A. Grisette as executive manager, and it began enrolling members in 1936. Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), pp. 164-165 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 16, 1935, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 13, 1935, p. 2; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 1, 1938, p. 6
2. by April 1, 1938 The Hospital Saving Association buys a lot for its own building in Chapel Hill With membership near 60,000 and a staff of 20, the Hospital Saving Association bought the northwest corner of Rosemary lane and Henderson street from the Orange County Building and Loan Association. It planned a Colonial-style brick building, about $30,000 for lot and building together, to replace crowded rooms in the John McCauley building. People: Isaac Hall Manning The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 1, 1938, p. 1
3. by April 22, 1938 The Hospital Saving Association wins American Hospital Association approval The Chapel Hill-based Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina was among the first hospital insurance plans approved under the American Hospital Association's new standards, and the only approved plan in the state. People: Isaac Hall Manning The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 22, 1938, p. 1
4. end of 1938 The Chapel Hill-based Hospital Saving Association ends 1938 with 83,436 members Executive director Felix A. Grisette reported that the Hospital Saving Association, headquartered in Chapel Hill, had 83,436 members at the end of 1938, 46,518 of them added that year, in groups in 90 counties; 3,570 members were Black, and textile workers led all occupations. In its three years it had paid hospital bills for 9,425 members, saving them $394,769, and it ranked eighth in net enrollment among 53 plans recognized by the American Hospital Association. People: Isaac Hall Manning The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 10, 1939, p. 3
5. June 1939 The Chapel Hill-based Hospital Saving Association enrolls R. J. Reynolds employees and passes 100,000 members The Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina, with headquarters in Chapel Hill, arranged for all R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company employees to join at the company's cost, adding an expected 20,000 members and carrying it past 100,000. Executive director Felix Grisette said he believed it was the largest group any hospitalization association in the country had enrolled at one time. The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 16, 1939, p. 1
6. May 1940 The Chapel Hill-based Hospital Saving Association pays out its millionth dollar The association paid its 1,000,000th dollar for members' hospital care in a check to the Moore County hospital at Pinehurst. It had paid hospitals $1,008,411 in the four years and four months since it began, $214,566 of it in the first five months of 1940, and had 127,000 members; Dr. Isaac H. Manning was president and E. M. Crawford executive director. People: Isaac Hall Manning The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 31, 1940, p. 3
7. April 15, 1941 Hospital Saving Association passes $1,500,000 in payments to hospitals The Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina, with headquarters in Chapel Hill, completed payment of $1,500,000 to the state's hospitals for 46,560 admissions since its founding in 1935. It then had more than 145,000 members and, by its own account, was the first state-wide non-profit hospitalization plan in the country. The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 25, 1941, p. 4
8. by October 22, 1943 The Chapel Hill-based Hospital Saving Association reaches 205,000 members The Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina, the state-wide Blue Cross plan with its main office in Chapel Hill, had 205,000 members, against 17,000 at the end of its first year, and had paid $3,200,000 to hospitals on 100,000 claims. Dr. Isaac H. Manning became chairman of the board and medical director, and Robert Lassiter of Charlotte president. People: Isaac Hall Manning The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 22, 1943, p. 3

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