G. Fred DiBona Jr.

The DiBona Family has requested that donations only be made either to the G. Fred DiBona, Jr. Cancer Research Fund, c/o the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, 16th Floor Penn Tower Building, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 or The Independence Blue Cross & Highmark Blue Shield Caring Foundation, 1901 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.



G. Fred DiBona, head of Independence Blue Cross, dies

By Josh Goldstein
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

G. Fred DiBona Jr., president and chief executive officer of Independence Blue Cross, died early this morning after a 15-month battle with renal cell cancer.

A South Philadelphia native and scion of a Philadelphia political family, DiBona, 53, led the region's largest insurer for 15 years.

Under his leadership, Blue Cross grew from a $1.3 billion traditional fee-for-service insurer into a $9.1 billion managed care company.

"I explain to people we are a lot like the Robin Hoods of the health insurance industry," DiBona said in a recent interview. "We maintain our good business and produce margins so that we can insure lots of people who... nobody else wants and wouldn't have access to health care."

As head of Blue Cross, DiBona said he saw his mission to improve customer service, expand availability of insurance to as many people as possible, and maintain Blue Cross' historic social mission through charitable works such as the Caring Foundation for Children, a nursing scholarship program, and assistance to health clinics for under-served people.

"Fred could walk with presidents and with the homeless," said Charles P. Pizzi, president and chief executive of the Tasty Baking Co. and a long-time DiBona friend and colleague. "He was really proud of Blue Cross's commitment beyond the established norms of an insurance company."

DiBona was particularly proud of the nurses program and helping poor people get health care through Blue Cross' support of the health clinics, said Pizzi, a member of the Blue Cross board.

"He really felt that everyone should have access to health care, and by committing to these clinics for the poor," DiBona felt people "were getting needed care," Pizzi said.

Last week, DiBona who had been going into the office regularly during his cancer treatments, informed the Blue Cross board that he was entering a more intense phase of radiation therapy that would likely keep him away from work.

DiBona designated two senior executives - Joseph Frick, senior vice president for human resources and administration, and Christopher Butler, senior vice president for marketing, to assume the chief executive function in his absence.

The youngest child of a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge, DiBona rose quickly into the ranks of Philadelphia's political-business establishment after graduating from the Delaware Law School of Widener University in 1975.

In 1976, at the age of 25, he was appointed to the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment, quickly rising to become its chairman.

Two years later, DiBona was moving up again - this time to become head of the Philadelphia Port Corp. He led the corporation for four years and was appointed president and chief executive officer of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in 1983. During his three years there, membership rose to 5,000 from 1,800.

From the Chamber, he moved in 1986 to Pennsylvania Blue Shield (now Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield) to run its new Keystone HMO. Then in 1990, at the age of 39, DiBona was named head of Indepdenence Blue Cross.

DiBona is survived by his wife, Sylvia, and two adult children, G. Fred DiBona 3d and Christine DiBona.

The DiBona Family has requested that donations be made either to the “G. Fred DiBona, Jr. Cancer Research Fund”, c/o the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, 16th Floor Penn Tower Building, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 or The Independence Blue Cross & Highmark Blue Shield Caring Foundation, 1901 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.