Optimal Health Outcomes

As a health insurer, our clinical teams help members close gaps in preventive care and manage chronic conditions that have a big impact on health and well-being.

These efforts specifically target immunizations, diabetes care, cardiovascular care, early detection cancer screenings, behavioral health, and maternal and infant health. 

Through the Blue Impact major grant program, we invested in many organizations finding innovative ways to close these gaps in their communities. More than $993,000 in Blue Impact grants awarded in 2025 included more than $400,000 toward efforts addressing these areas.

One grant, for example, is enabling OU Health to increase access to lung cancer screenings and prevention programs with 10 additional events in Western and Southwestern Oklahoma with its medically equipped bus.

BCBSOK also administers the Oklahoma Caring Foundation as an in-kind donation, giving Oklahomans easy access preventive health services through the Caring Van^® mobile health program.  

The Caring Van program has worked with public health departments, schools and others to bring no-cost immunizations and other services to communities across Oklahoma for 26 years. In 2025, the program held more than 760 events, reaching more than 11,600 Oklahomans. 

Locally Defined Health Solutions

The people and organizations on the ground in our communities are best able to meet the diverse health and human service needs of the people who live there. That’s why locally defined health solutions are a focus of our Blue Impact investments. 

Our 2025 grants in this area include an investment in medical respite services provided by City Care, Oklahoma’s only low-barrier night shelter. The funding is enabling the organization to strengthen staff training, buy medical supplies and provide transportation to follow-up care as it works toward opening a new respite center in 2027.

Another Blue Impact grant is helping finance implementation costs for community health centers adopting electronic health records to support value-based care. 

And Tulsa Area United Way, a long-term community partner with BCBSOK, is using Blue Impact funding to implement United for ALICE, a model to help quantify and understand the needs of households experiencing financial hardship.

Economic Opportunity and Stability

Many of our community investments are aimed at addressing poverty, barriers to employment job creation and skills development so our members and neighbors are better able to achieve their best health. 

Through the Blue Impact major grant program, we awarded grants totaling more than $230,000 specifically aimed at improving job skills and employment readiness. 

With one of these grants, Oklahoma City’s SidexSide is expanding its workforce development program for people referred by partners such as sober living facilities, drug diversion programs and respite shelters. During nine weeks of training, participants learn workplace skills from local and national partners while gaining real-world experience with a local employer. 

The Oklahoma State University Foundation is using Blue Impact funding for an immersive summer program aimed at boosting the percentage of students from disadvantage backgrounds in OSU’s nursing program.

Neighborhood and Built Environment

The physical structure of our communities has profound effects on our health and well-being. We’re all better able to thrive with access to safe and affordable housing, transportation, and space for exercise and recreation.

We continued investing in housing and transportation in 2025 through the Blue Impact program with grants totaling $100,000. 

Blue Impact partner Family Promise of Lawton in Comanche County stabilizes housing for families at risk of homelessness. The organization mediates with landlords and helps with obstacles such as rent deposits, unpaid utility bills and enrollment in benefit programs.

Another grant is enabling Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma create Spanish-language brochures and maintain its language-line services that help Oklahoma’s Hispanic communities navigate housing resources. And United Way of Eastern Frontier Country using a Blue Impact grant to provide ride-hailing services for medical appointments, grocery shopping and other essential needs in Shawnee, a city with no public transportation system. 

Nutrition

Through a combination of grants, sponsorships, direct funding and food donations, we contributed more than $338,000 in 2025 to address hunger and food insecurity in ways that meet the needs of local communities. And BCBSOK employees volunteered nearly 700 hours with community organizations fighting hunger. 

A Blue Impact grant is enabling Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to distribute about 21,600 meals for almost 150 patients through its Medically Tailored Meal Program, which addresses the dietary needs of residents with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. 

More than 35 patients of Cordell Memorial Hospital are receiving meals and nutrition education through the program, which the hospital’s CEO says helps them manage their conditions without traveling to larger cities for complex medical care.

Another Blue Impact grant is supporting the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma’s mobile market, which delivers fresh food in communities with low food access and high rates of food insecurity, including in 15 rural counties.