C. Rufus Rorem; Influenced Early Prepaid Health Plans

CHERRY HILL, N.J. — C. Rufus Rorem, whose research shaped prepaid health insurance and led to the formation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, died Monday at age 93 at a nursing home here.

Described in a recent issue of Modern Healthcare magazine as a man “who made Blue Cross a household name,” Rorem was the primary author of a report on the costs of group medical care that became a foundation of the then-unpopular movement.

That was in the late 1920s when he was working in Chicago for the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a medical philanthropy, and he had been named accountant and economist for the Washington-based Committee on the Cost of Medical Care.

His committee’s report, “The Cost of Medical Care,” issued in 1930, advocated group medical practice and group medical prepayment, concepts considered radical at the time.

In 1937, Rorem joined the American Hospital Assn. and he continued to develop hospital prepayment programs.

As director of the association’s committee on hospital service--later the Blue Cross Commission--Rorem helped shape the rapidly proliferating hospital insurance plans that eventually came under the aegis of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assn.

“Rufus Rorem’s early and lasting dedication to the principals of rational health care payment and planning has been an inspiration to Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans and the association,” said association President Bernard R. Tresnowski.

Rorem later became executive director of the Hospital Council of Philadelphia. After his retirement in 1959, he remained active in health care planning organizations and served as a special consultant to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Assn.

Rorem is the father of classical composer and music writer Ned Rorem.