CHICAGO, June 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second
consecutive year, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a mutual
legal reserve company and the country's largest customer-owned
health insurer, has been recognized as part of the Civic 50. An
initiative of Points of Light, the Civic 50 honors companies that
create community engagement initiatives that translate good
intentions into sound business practices.
"I am proud to share this honor with the more than 22,000
employees who dedicate themselves to improving the lives of our
members and local communities," said Paula
Steiner, president and CEO, HCSC. "We look forward to
continuing our 80-year legacy of caring with measurable,
sustainable programs that make a real difference in the lives of
those we serve."
HCSC, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield health Plans in
Illinois, Montana, New
Mexico, Oklahoma and
Texas, was honored for its efforts
to improve health and wellness outcomes in its local communities.
One of its signature programs, Enhancing Care for Children with
Asthma, in collaboration with the American Lung Association of the
Upper Midwest, leverages HCSC's claims data to identify large
populations of high-risk patients with asthma – a top cost-driver –
and deliver community-based interventions to those populations by
implementing best practices and resources within health clinics to
improve the quality of care delivered to individuals with asthma.
Through 2015, the project is estimated to have reached more than
350,000 individuals through nearly 90 clinic locations across
Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Initial results from 28 participating clinic locations in
Illinois and New Mexico demonstrated a 62 percent decrease
in hospitalizations for children diagnosed with asthma and a 54
percent decrease in emergency department visits for the same
population. Improving the quality of care translates to
better-managed asthma, reduced symptoms and associated costs, in
addition to improving the quality of life for those individuals
impacted.
Additional HCSC efforts highlighted this year include:
- Healthy Kids, Healthy Families® is the company's
signature community initiative and part of its ongoing commitment
to the health and well-being of the children and families across
its five states. In 2015 alone, HCSC invested more than
$7 million to outcomes-based programs
with 107 community partnerships, positively impacting more than 3.2
million children in areas of nutrition, physical activity, disease
prevention and management, and supporting safe environments.
- Blue CorpsSM is
HCSC's employee volunteer program, which promotes and encourages
the company's 22,000 employees to donate their time and talents to
serve in their local communities. Blue Corps volunteers across
HCSC's five states experienced another record-breaking year in
2015, with nearly 6,400 employees participating and logging more
than 107,000 volunteer hours to help communities, which generated
more than $284,000 in volunteer
matching dollars. Those hours translate to a cash equivalent of
more than $2.5 million in support to
nonprofit partners.
The Civic 50 winners were selected based on four dimensions of
their U.S. community engagement programs: investment,
integration, institutionalization, and impact. This year's Civic 50
applicants were evaluated and accrued points based on several
criteria, including the quantity and impact of financial and human
resources applied to civic improvement, whether internal and
external resources are activated to maximize community impact, how
a company's community engagement activities support its business
interests, how broadly community engagement is supported and
institutionalized within a company's policies, systems and
incentives, and how a company measures the social and business
value of its community engagement programs.
The Civic 50 survey was developed in partnership with a
high-profile working group of researchers and industry thought
leaders. Dozens of corporate advisors provided strategic
guidance on the program's objectives, including defining
indicators, developing methodology, and identifying partners and
participants. As a result of this collaborative process, the
initiative reflects leading insight and thinking about how
corporations can and should connect with communities in a
twenty-first century economy.
The survey was administered by True Impact, a company
specializing in helping organizations maximize and measure their
social and business value. The survey instrument consists of
quantitative and multiple-choice questions that inform the Civic
50 scoring process. The Civic 50 is the only survey and
ranking system that exclusively measures corporate involvement in
communities.
To learn more about the Civic 50, to see a full list of the
winners and to access the full report, The 2016 Civic 50:
Turning Good Intentions into Sound Business Practices, which
presents the highlights, trends, benchmarking data and best
practices from the 2016 Civic 50, please visit
www.Civic50.org.
About Health Care Service Corporation
Health Care
Service Corporation is the country's largest customer-owned health
insurer and fourth largest health insurer overall, with more than
15 million members in its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in
Illinois, Montana, New
Mexico, Oklahoma and
Texas. A Mutual Legal Reserve
Company, HCSC is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Association. For more information, please visit
www.HCSC.com, visit our Facebook page or follow us at
www.twitter.com/HCSC.
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SOURCE Health Care Service Corporation