From Investment to Intervention: Using Data to Improve the Well-Being of Our Communities

You may think of Blue Cross NC as a health insurance company, but we are so much more than that. Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of our customers and communities. That starts with addressing non-medical factors called drivers of health – access to food, transportation, and housing. Think about it – if you don’t have consistent access to healthy, quality food, you don’t have a way to get to and from work/school, or you don’t have a safe, stable home, then those barriers need to be addressed before anything else. You’ll hear from Cheryl Parquet and Tia Bass who are passionate about this topic. Cheryl was fortunate to grow up and experience life in a small town, but she also knows firsthand the struggles her community faced. When she became part of the solution at Blue Cross NC to invest in drivers of health, she was overjoyed with how our partnerships would make positive impacts on people in rural communities, like her hometown. Tia’s entire career and formal training has been dedicated to keeping people from getting sick and promoting healthy behaviors. In her role as an Analytics Consultant she uses data to understand the root cause of barriers that impact health and create interventions in partnership with our community programs that make a real difference in people’s lives. As we continue to focus on drivers of health, it’s important for us to understand how health equity affects us all. Increasing health equity increases the opportunity for all to live the healthiest life possible. In this chat, you’ll learn: The importance of addressing food insecurity How data can inform investment and intervention strategies Community investments and programs that improve the health of vulnerable communities