Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan sustains an 83-year commitment to promoting health and wellness for all Michiganders. We engage communities across Michigan to address social determinants of health, help remove barriers and inequities and increase access to services and care. In 2021, we sustained some of our far-reaching efforts while implementing new programs. Building strong stakeholder relationships and supporting community needs are inherent goals of the Community Responsibility team. Read the 2021 Community Responsibility Report.
2021 Community Support
Despite looming pandemic challenges, Michigan community organizations moved forward in 2021 with renewed outreach plans seeking sustainability for their programs. Several fundraisers cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic were reestablished, and programs were updated to meet the many new needs of Michigan residents. Through our Corporate Community Giving, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan made 360 corporate contributions totaling $2.6 million and in-kind donations of more than $240,000. In partnership with the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation presented $650,000 in grants to 14 organizations to improve health equity and address food and nutrition insecurity throughout Michigan’s food resources. We partnered with the United Fresh Start Foundation to provide 20 schools in six Michigan school districts with new salad bars for their cafeterias as part of the national Salad Bars to Schools initiative. We provided $904,500 in grants to 49 safety net clinics, making us Michigan’s largest private donor to clinics that provide free or low-cost medical and dental treatment for uninsured and vulnerable Michigan residents. Our commitment to Michigan’s safety net is longstanding – since 2005, we’ve awarded more than $17 million in grants, which have enabled volunteer doctors and nurses at these clinics to care for thousands of people every year. Take a look inside one of the clinics we’ve supported. Together with Dedicated Senior Medical Centers, a subsidiary of ChenMed, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan opened six new primary care centers across Metro Detroit to provide health care to seniors – including one in the East Warren-Cadieux neighborhood of Detroit where Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is also making a $5 million commitment to help with sustainable neighborhood improvements over the long-term. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan partnered with the Western Wayne Family Health Center, ACCESS and the Arab American and Chaldean Council to address economic and racial and ethnic barriers in access to care, serving families of Middle Eastern descent. We established a grant program to address racial and ethnic disparities with mental health care for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. We provided $50,000 in support to the Corktown LGBTQ Health Institute to develop a comprehensive program to improve LGBTQ health and health care in Michigan and promote health equity. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan partnered with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation to award nearly $300,000 in funding toward permanent supportive housing initiatives that advance racial and economic health equity for special populations including veterans, LGBTQ community members, women in recovery, homeless family, women aging out of foster care and medically complex patients. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan also partnered with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation to award $100,000 funding to Hamilton-McFarlan Senior Health Center for access to integrated care to address seniors’ unique health needs and health disparities. We also paid another $100 million to the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, bringing our total contribution to $710 million over the last nine years to enable the Fund to invest in community-led programs to protect and serve vulnerable populations in Michigan. Go to the full 2021 Annual Report.
