For more information contact:
Kelly Cannon
816.395.3711 Kelly.Cannon@BlueKC.com
KANSAS CITY, MO. (August 22, 2018) — Today Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) is announcing the expansion of Spira Care, a combined primary care and insurance offering exclusively available to eligible Blue KC members.
Spira Care was designed due to market demand and following months of hands-on collaboration with consumers to create a health plan that is easy to understand and even easier to use. The Spira Care experience takes place in Care Centers, where personal Care Guides will help members navigate the world of healthcare; answering questions, explaining benefits, and coordinating care across all providers.
Blue KC currently operates two Spira Care Centers in Olathe and Shawnee, Kansas. In January of 2019, Spira Care will expand to Missouri with the opening of three new Care Centers in the Crossroads District (1916 Grand Boulevard), Lee’s Summit (760 N.W. Blue Parkway) and Liberty (8350 N. Church Road).
A cornerstone of Spira Care is Blue KC’s relationship with strategic partners to provide clinical expertise and staff for integrated primary and behavioral health services at the Care Centers. Blue KC is working with Vera Whole Health as their strategic and clinical partner with the three new Care Centers in Missouri.
“We are excited to partner with Vera Whole Health for our new Spira Care Centers,” said Greg Sweat, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Blue KC. “Their team brings years of experience providing population health management to employers with a delivery model of on-site primary care and demonstrated results in raising the standard of quality, affordability and patient satisfaction.”
The Vera Whole Health model complements the Spira Care model with their mission of treating people through empathetic listening, using data to identify, engage and intervene, building relationships between care providers and patients, and coordinating care beyond the Care Center.
In addition to the physical expansion of the Care Centers, Blue KC continues to evolve the Spira Care offering with the goal of reaching more members, including the addition of a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) eligible for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) beginning in 2019.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest not-for-profit health insurer in Missouri and the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City, has been part of the Kansas City community since 1938. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City provides health coverage services to more than one million residents in the greater Kansas City area, including Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and 30 counties in Northwest Missouri. Our mission: to provide affordable access to healthcare and to improve the health of our members. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information on the company, visit its website at BlueKC.com.
