Here are definitions of some of the terms that are used throughout the site.

I.D. Card/Identification Card: The card issued to members upon approval of the request for Enrollment Application and Change Form.

Indemnity: Traditional fee-for-service health insurance in which a subscriber has free choice of physicians. The coverage usually includes a deductible and co-insurance. The Plan pays for a certain percentage of charges billed by the provider, and the member is responsible for the rest.

Immunizations: Vaccines against specific diseases that can be administered either orally or by injection.

Implant Materials: Implant materials consist a variety of synthetic and non-synthetic (organic) material that is used to augment or enhance a facial or body part, such as breast implants, chin implants or other soft tissue fillers (collagen, Gore-tex, etc.).

In-Network: Refers to the use of providers who participate in the health plan's provider network. Many benefit plans encourage enrollees to use participating (in-network) providers to reduce the enrollee's out-of-pocket expense.

In-Network Provider: A provider that has been designated as a participating or contracted provider by BCBSNC for the member's specific health insurance product.

Individual Insurance: Health care coverage for individuals or single family units.

Infertility: The inability of a heterosexual couple to conceive a child after 12 months of unprotected male/female intercourse.

Informed Consent: Informed consent correlates to signing forms that legally allow the surgery to proceed. Informed consent assumes that the patient has read about, been educated and understands all of the events, risks and complications that could take place as a result of surgery.

Infusion Therapy: Treatment accomplished by placing therapeutic agents into the vein, including intravenous feeding.

Inpatient: Services received when a member is admitted to a hospital or non-hospital facility as a registered bed patient for whom a room and board charge is made.

Investigational Procedures: Procedures that are not recognized by the Plan as standard medical care for the condition, disease, illness or injury being treated, including, but not limited to, diagnostic service, treatment, facility, equipment, drug or device. A service is considered investigational (experimental) if any of the following criteria are met:

1. The services, procedures or supplies requiring Federal or Governmental body approval, such as drugs and devices, do not have unrestricted market approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or final approvals from any other governmental regulatory body for use in treatment of a specified condition. Any approval that is granted as an interim step in the regulatory process is not a substitute for final or unrestricted market approval.
2. There is sufficient or inconclusive medical and scientific evidence to permit the Plan to evaluate the therapeutic value of the service, procedure or supply. (Adequate evidence is defined as at least two documents of medical and scientific evidence that indicate that the proposed treatment is likely to be beneficial to the member.)
3. There is inconclusive medical and scientific evidence in peer-reviewed medical literature that the service, procedure or supply has a beneficial effect on health outcomes.
4. The service, procedure or supply under consideration is not as beneficial as any established alternatives.
5. There is insufficient information or inconclusive scientific evidence that, when used in a non-investigational setting, the service, procedure or supply has a beneficial effect on health outcomes or is as beneficial as any established alternatives.