Turning action into equity
"We believe that everyone should have access to high-quality, affordable health care, and we believe the time to act is now. We view this work as a critical part of our decades-long focus on providing quality care to our members."
Sarah Iselin
President and Chief Executive Officer
See problems. Share solutions. Make change.
In partnership with our members, our employer customers, our business partners, community organizations, and the medical community, we’re working to create a better health care system for everyone.
Equity and care
We’re teaming up with the clinicians in our network to ensure equity in care. We’re building this commitment into our contracts and payment programs, and we’re collaborating with community members and experts in health equity to develop innovative new solutions.
Equity and access
We’ve stepped up our efforts to ensure better access for all, including:
- Making our website available in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian
- Launching a fully in-house Spanish-language member call center
- Working with all of our business partners to ensure that they’re measuring the equity of the services they provide and addressing any disparities in care
- Launching a Spanish-language version of Coverage, our health news site
Equity: How you can help
Our members can help improve our health care system by confidentially sharing race, ethnicity, and language preferences.
Equity and employer partners
We know our customers want all their employees to receive quality, affordable health care, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or neighborhood. We are making the insights from our Health Equity Report available to employers and supporting them in implementing best-in-class practices.
NEW IN 2022
We're the first insurer to create and sign groundbreaking contracts that pay for health equity. More than 550,000 Blue Cross members will be covered under these contracts with the state’s largest health systems: Steward Healthcare Network, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Mass General Brigham Health and Boston Accountable Care Organization. As part of our broad support for health care organizations aiming to eliminate racial and ethnic inequities in care, we've funded $25 million in Institute for Healthcare Improvement grants and created a collaborative community to share data and best practices.
See the data
Our Health Equity Report examines data from more than 1.2 million commercial Massachusetts members and identifies racial disparities in care. In line with our commitment to transparency, we make this data available to the public. And, in partnership with the medical community, we're using it to make meaningful change.
Partners for change
To make a lasting, sustainable impact on our community, we’re:
- Investing in organizations that are advancing health justice.
- Bringing together nonprofit leaders for our annual
Sharing Challenges, Seeking Solutions: Centering Health Justice forum. - Continuing to award financial and pro bono support to nonprofits that are addressing environmental and health inequities in underserved and marginalized communities. In 2022, we awarded more than $750,000.
- Serving as a member and supporter of the Health Equity Compact, a coalition of Black and Latinx leaders across a diverse set of Massachusetts health organizations, to advocate for key health care and health policies to improve health equity.
- Investing $1 million over four years as a founding member of the New Commonwealth Racial Equity and Social Justice Fund created by local Black and Brown executives to address and eliminate systemic racism and racial inequality in the Commonwealth.
- Participating in the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Pacesetters program, which seeks to close the racial wealth gap in one generation by partnering with businesses of color. In 2022, our work was recognized with the Chamber’s inaugural Company of the Year award.
- Creating advancement and economic opportunities in our community through our Supplier Diversity Program. Through the program, we partner with minority, women, LGBTQ, veteran, and disabled business owners who bring unique experiences and perspectives to our business, and support our diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives.
Inclusivity. It’s how we work.
To ensure all our employees feel respected, included, and empowered to contribute, we’re committed to:
- Recruiting, promoting, and retaining diverse employees at all levels
- Leveraging our training programs to share best practices and reinforce the importance of inclusive leadership
- Continuing employee education on cultural competency
- Fostering a company culture where every voice is welcomed, heard, and valued
- Honoring and observing the history of diverse populations through employee resource groups and corporate programming
Beginning in January 2023, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has engaged health care provider organizations value-based contracts that incorporate financial incentives to measurably improve health equity. More information on these pay-for-equity contracts is available here and here, and technical details of the methods underlying the pay-for-equity contract design are available here.