Partnership for Workplace mental Health

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City


 
Date of Entry: 5/23/2007 9:10:42 AM
Major Locations: US- Midwest
Kansas City, MO (HQ)
Industry:
Health Care and Social Assistance
Employer Description:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (BCBSKC) is the area's largest health benefits provider, with more than 880,000 members in greater Kansas City, northwest Missouri, and northeast Kansas. This locally owned not-for-profit company has operated in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1982 when two local plans, originating in 1938 and 1943, merged.

In the eight decades it has operated, the company has invested heavily in improving the quality of healthcare in the Kansas City community, including advances in its computer systems to enable effective tracking of all business components. They operate a number of physician and hospital networks to provide a variety of group and individual health plans to meet the needs of their customers and improve the health of the community.


Total Number of Employees: 1,100     
Contact:
Sherri Enright, Vice President, Human Resources - 816-395-2729 sherri.enright@bcbs.com
Problem Statement:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City participated in the Community Initiative on Depression (CID) led by the Mid-America Coalition on Health Care in 2001-2004. The initiative brought together employers, health care providers, health plans, and other stakeholders to address depression because of its high prevalence and the significant impact depression has on the workplace. Based on a Coalition-developed Employee Attitudinal Survey and other initial assessments, a broad-based initiative was planned to include workplace education and collaboration with the employers’ EAPs, local mental health agencies, and national groups. In 2004, as improvements were being made in the local infrastructure for depression treatment, the Coalition began to develop informational interventions in the form of communication campaigns in the workplace with the assistance of a consulting occupational therapist experienced in worksite health promotion. A model intervention was developed with optional components to allow employers to tailor their efforts to their particular work culture and communication standards. A full description of the CID can be found at the Coalition’s web site, www.machc.org.




Examples of Mental Health Innovation:
Community Partnership -
  • Brought together employers, health care providers, health plans, and other stakeholders around depression and its impact on the workplace.
  • Detailed Description






Community Partnership - BCBSKC’s provides their 1,100 employees with a full service wellness center and holds monthly health education presentations. Disease management programs assist individuals with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, and cardiopulmonary disease. New Directions Behavioral Health, a wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary of BCBSKC, provides employee assistance and behavioral health management services to BCBSKC employees and to clients nationwide.


Community Initiative on Depression Components:

  • Internal planning team led by Vice President/Medical Director and Vice President of Human Resources
  • Newsletter
  • Employee Lunch-n-Learn

During the time period of the Community Initiative on Depression, BCBSKC also provided information packets to physicians in their networks on depression and coordination of care as well as postpartum depression. In addition, a letter to all patients with new prescriptions for antidepressant medications, a proportion of whom were BCBSKC employees, describing common side effects and the length of time expected for relief of symptoms increased patient adherence to the medications significantly.



 



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