free encyclopedia jump to navigation search blue cross and blue shield of kansas city blue kc is an independent licensee of the blue cross blue shield association and a not for profit health insurance provider with more than one million members . founded in 1938 blue cross and blue shield of kansas city offers a wide variety of healthcare dental life insurance and medicare coverage . centered on kansas city blue kc serves 32 counties in northwest missouri as well as johnson and wyandotte counties in kansas . blue cross and blue shield of kansas city type not for profit industry health insurance founded 1938 headquarters kansas city mo website bluekc.com contents 1 history 2 live blue 3 subsidiaries and affiliates 4 references 5 external links history edit originally named blue cross of kansas city the health insurance provider started with seven network hospitals and two employees . in 1938 blue cross of kansas city signed its first group wolferman s bakery and its owner grace betty jackson became its first member . by the end of 1938 blue cross of kansas city grew to 10 network hospitals eight employees and nearly 14 000 members . 1 kansas city blue shield was formed in 1943 to provide members with a prepayment plan for physician services . kansas city blue shield extended benefits to individuals not covered by an employer known as individual member enrollment in 1950 . the company was the first blue cross and blue shield plan in the country to provide this new service . in 1982 the kansas city blue cross and blue shield plans merged creating blue cross and blue shield of kansas city . in july 2009 blue kc was the first company in the country to earn the national committee for quality assurance ncqa wellness & health promotion whp accreditation . 2 the whp program assesses key areas of health promotion including how wellness programs are implemented in the workplace how services like coaching are provided to help participants develop skills to make healthy choices and how individual health information is properly safeguarded . live blue edit in 2013 blue kc opened two neighborhood wellness centers called live blue 3 live blue zona rosa and live blue prairie village function as health education and wellness centers where visitors participate in free health education information sessions wellness seminars fitness classes and face to face customer service and product sales support . the centers also serve as a meeting spot for local clubs cycling and running groups and host professional kansas city athletes for appearances and autograph signings . subsidiaries and affiliates edit in addition to healthcare benefits blue kc offers specialized services and managed care expertise through its affiliates and subsidiaries . cobalt ventures llc a holding company for blue kc s subsidiaries cobalt medplans a domestic provider of health insurance claims processing serving hmo medicaid blue cross and blue shield medicare advantage and commercial health plans preferred health professionals php a subsidiary that offers coverage in kansas and missouri with multiple ppo network products compalliance a subsidiary that offers workers compensation services to regional employers and insurers new directions behavioral health ndbh a subsidiary that offers managed behavior healthcare employee assistance organizational consulting and health coaching cobalt astra a provider of human resource services strategic planning and other outsourcing services cobalt talon a provider of business intelligence analytics and data warehousing services references edit blue kc history . blue cross and blue shield of kansas city becomes nation s first organization to receive ncqa accreditation for wellness & health promotion press release . ncqa . july 23 2009 . retrieved january 25 2013 . blue cross of kc opens retail location in zona rosa . kansas city business journal . june 20 2013 . retrieved january 12 2014 . external links edit official website live blue official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title blue cross and blue shield of kansas city & oldid 719962498 categories organizations based in kansas city missourimembers of blue cross blue shield association navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 12 may 2016 at 21 26 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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