Access to Care: Investing in Health and Affordability for North Carolina

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) is committed to improving the health and well-being of the customers and communities we serve. As North Carolina’s only mission-driven, not-for-profit health insurer operating in all 100 counties, we’re uniquely positioned to address the state’s most pressing health challenges while making health care more affordable. In our tour of all 100 counties, we found communities across the state consistently shared the health challenges they face. Blue Cross NC is committed to standing alongside these communities, amplifying local solutions, and bringing the full strength of our organization, including the Blue Cross NC Foundation, to address the challenges through three signature initiatives: Youth Mental Health, Health through Food, and Access to Care.¹ Together, these initiatives reflect the belief that improving health outcomes requires investments that address the factors that shape health long before someone needs intensive or expensive medical care.

The newest signature initiative, Improving Access to Care in Rural and Underserved Communities, is grounded in a simple but important premise: people cannot achieve better health outcomes if they cannot consistently access the trusted, affordable care they need. While we have focused on improving access to care throughout the 25-year history of the Blue Cross NC Foundation, including an emphasis on access for the uninsured population and the health care workforce, this initiative has evolved to reflect a broader understanding of what it takes for people to get the right care at the right time.

Across North Carolina, many individuals and families continue to face barriers that make it difficult to receive preventive and primary care, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Workforce shortages, challenges navigating health coverage, transportation barriers, fragmented systems, and low trust in health care all contribute to delayed care, poorer health outcomes, and higher costs over time.² Access to care is both a health and affordability issue. When people delay care because they cannot find a health care provider, navigate the system, or overcome barriers getting to appointments, conditions often worsen and require more complex and expensive interventions.

Our goal is to expand access to trusted, affordable, high-quality, prevention-focused care while strengthening the systems that support health across North Carolina. The goal requires investments that help people stay healthy, access care earlier, and receive support from trusted providers and community partners before health needs become health crises.

The Access to Care initiative focuses on three interconnected areas that help expand access to high-quality, prevention-focused care across North Carolina. First, it seeks to strengthen health coverage by making it more affordable, understandable, and easier to use so people can access preventive and primary care earlier. Second, it focuses on increasing and improving the places where people receive care by strengthening the health care providers and workforce that communities rely on. Third, it aims to build trust, empower consumers, and remove barriers to care by improving the pathways that help people engage, return to, and stay connected to care, while making it easier to navigate the health system and access needed support. Importantly, this approach is grounded in listening to communities and bringing the full strength of the Blue Cross NC enterprise—including philanthropy, products, data, influence, and expertise—to advance proven solutions.

Examples of this work include Blue Cross NC supporting the NC Chamber’s Carolina HealthWorks program,³ which expands access to affordable, quality health coverage for small business employers and their employees,⁴ and partnering with organizations such as the Care Share Alliance to connect individuals with trusted health care resources and more coordinated access to care. The initiative also includes investments that expand access to prevention-focused care, such as integrating primary care services into FastMed clinics—which, like Blue Cross NC, are part of the CuraCor Solutions family of companies—to help meet growing demand, particularly in underserved communities, while supporting whole-person care and keeping FastMed open to all North Carolinians. In addition, a long-standing partnership with North Carolina’s Network of Free and Charitable Clinics helps strengthen critical safety-net providers that deliver trusted care to uninsured individuals and others facing barriers to care across the state.⁵ These types of investments help strengthen the systems that support health, make it easier for people to access the care and support they need and lower costs for everyone.

These investments also help people access preventive care earlier, improve continuity of care, and reduce avoidable health care costs. Deepening our focus on Access to Care through this new signature initiative, along with our investments in Youth Mental Health and Health through Food, reflects the broader commitment to invest upstream in prevention, early intervention, and the conditions that support long-term health. Blue Cross NC brings its purpose to life through investments and actions across the business and through the Blue Cross NC Foundation, which invests in long-term, community-driven solutions to improve health outcomes and strengthen communities. By improving mental health, increasing access to nutritious food, and expanding access to trusted, affordable care, we are helping build healthier communities and a stronger health system. As North Carolina continues to face rising health care costs and persistent health disparities, these investments represent an opportunity to improve health outcomes and create a healthier and more affordable future for all North Carolinians.

Acknowledgments

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation provides funding to the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, the publisher of the NCMJ.

Conflicts of Interest

The author has no conflicts of interest to report.

Correspondence

Address correspondence to Colleen Briggs (Colleen.Briggs@bcbsnc.com).