Access to Care

Blue Impact

Closing Gaps in Care

With our Care Van^® mobile health program and community partners, we’re expanding access to immunizations, diabetes care, cardiovascular care, behavioral health, early detection cancer screening and maternal and infant health.

Blue Impact grants are supporting community organizations across New Mexico that complement our collaboration with doctors and other providers to close care gaps for members.

One grant is helping Southern New Mexico Diabetes Outreach provide screenings and prevention and management education in the state’s vast rural and frontier areas, reaching about 10,000 people a year. In Northern New Mexico, Blue Impact funding is helping Many Mothers provide in-home services and wraparound care for babies and their caregivers with its Maternal Support Program.

Providing Prenatal Outreach to High-Risk Mothers

A team of medical management specialists and care coordinators attempt to fill care gaps and lower preterm births by identifying and reaching out to Medicaid members at risk of pregnancy complications.

Care Van^® Impact

Economic Opportunity and Stability

It’s hard to focus on health without stable income, access to jobs, and chances to gain new skills and grow. Seven New Mexico organizations are making a difference in these areas with the support of Blue Impact grants.

They include La Plaza de Encuentro Gathering Place, which is providing cultural and linguistically accessible training for Spanish-speaking immigrants seeking career opportunities in home health. Albuquerque Adult Learning Center is offering literacy, high school equivalency, English as a second language and career pathway services, including solar training and education.

Helping Housing-Insecure Members Find Stability

BCBSNM care coordinators work with ABQ StreetConnect to secure emergency and long-term housing for chronically homeless individuals and connect them to preventive health services.

Addressing Hunger and Nutrition

Reliable access to nutritious food is essential to health and wellness, and too many people in communities across New Mexico live in food-insecure households.

To help meet this need, BCBSNM supports and collaborates with organizations that buy and distribute fresh food and provide culturally appropriate education and support.

About 15% of the population and 23% of the children are food insecure in the nine northern counties served by the Food Depot, which is distributing food with the help of a Blue Impact grant. The Rio Grande Food Project is using Blue Impact funding to provide more nutritious food to meet growing needs in Albuquerque.

Eastern New Mexico Food Bank Aims to End Hunger by the Dozens…of Eggs

Often referred to as “nature’s multivitamin,” eggs are one of the world’s most sustainable protein sources, loaded with 13 essential nutrients that improve brain function and strengthen the immune system.

Strengthening Neighborhood
and Local Assets

We all rely on the structure of our homes and neighborhoods to meet our most basic needs, so we’re investing in efforts across New Mexico to improve access to affordable healthy housing, transportation and physical activity.

A Blue Impact grant is helping the New Mexico Ramp Project free disabled individuals from the isolation of not being able to get out of or into their homes by building and installing ramps across the state. The Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) is improving the access and safety of more than 60 miles of trails that connect most neighborhoods of Zuni Pueblo, one of the longest continuously inhabited settlements in North America.

In November 2023, BCBSNM announced it will open a Blue Door Neighborhood Center^SM in Albuquerque’s South Valley in 2024, offering members and the community access to in-person resources to improve their health and wellness at no cost.

BCBSNM also made a $400,000 commitment to bring as many as 10 outdoor fitness courts to communities in collaboration with local officials and National Fitness Campaign.

Blue Door Neighborhood Center to Open in South Valley

The Blue Door Neighborhood Center will partner with community organizations and health care providers to offer a variety of resources and programming to impact community health, including targeting maternal health, diabetes, behavioral health and heart disease. 

Locally Defined Solutions

Health needs are often very different from one city neighborhood to another, suburb to suburb and community to community in every region of the state.

The Blue Impact grant program is helping 13 organizations address these needs at the hyperlocal level.

These efforts include free dental hygiene services for students at Las Cruces Lynn Middle School and their families, provided by Dona Ana Community College as part of a larger community school program with wraparound services. Another Blue Impact grant is helping Pegasus Legal Services for Children offer free bilingual civil legal services to more than 2,000 children, youth and their caregivers.

Community Health Days Span the State

BCBSNM community outreach specialists collaborated with organizations and health care providers to meet the most pressing health concerns in the area at events held in every region of New Mexico.