We have long supported the health equity and vitality of our state, but we are far from perfect. One by one, we are addressing the gaps and blind spots within our organization that have contributed to inequitable structures and systems. We are making race and health equity our business.
At Blue Cross, we’ve been on a journey to create healthier communities for a number of years. Doing so is core to our nonprofit mission and an important part of who we are as a business. On our journey we’ve come to realize if we don’t address the deep health inequities facing our state – both through our community investments and through how we do business – our efforts won’t have the impact we ultimately desire. We have made health equity not only a core value, but also a major strategic focus area for us. We execute on this by integrating healthy equity best practices in how we do business, collaborating with the community and others for actionable change, and providing opportunities for employees to advance their own intercultural competencies that promote diversity and inclusion. We’re building on existing work throughout the company and changing the way we do business with positive results along the way.
Health equity integration
Integrating racial and health equity is the only way to truly remove structural racism and barriers to inequities. That’s why we have worked hard to integrate the work across the entire organization.
- We created an internal health equity policy that includes integrating health equity principles and capabilities into our value proposition, strategic plan, and individual and corporate goals. As a result of this policy, all work now requires a health equity analysis before decisions are made.
- We have a detailed racial and health equity dashboard that allows us to measure our progress and more importantly hold us accountable for achieving our goals.
- We crafted a racial and health equity definition to center our strategies which calls attention to those factors that play the greatest role in Minnesota’s inequities– race, income and ZIP code.
- We are deepening our commitment to hearing from communities of color through a partnership with Marnita's Table.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Our DEI work is pivotal to success and transformation into an anti-racist organization. We are working across the board to change our environments, policies, procedures and culture to work towards a workplace that is equitable for all associates.
Our work includes:
- Creating an internal advisory committee to drive internal racial and health equity strategy
- Adopting a policy that supports employees who are transitioning gender
- Adopting an inclusive restroom policy that ensures equitable facilities for employees of all gender identities
- Created equitable associate benefits for employees and family members who are transgender
- Increasing the cultural competence within the organization using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to promote intercultural competency development
- Increasing BIPOC representation, especially leaders throughout the company, by building strong partnerships to hire and retain more BIPOC associates, increase cultural competency among leaders and associates, remove bias from our messaging enterprise wide, and evaluate HR policies and practices
- Providing all associates training on unconscious bias
- Launched new expectations that will hold leaders accountable for ensuring we create a diverse and inclusive workplace through representation and leadership
Business operations
As part of our overall business strategy we made racial and health equity a ‘blue chip,’ creating an enterprise-wide Racial and Health Equity Plan. The plan's central tenants are:
- To create a diverse and inclusive workplace through representation and leadership
- Reduce health inequities for people of color in the state of Minnesota
- Remove barriers to health for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander and other communities of color through community partnerships
- We are fostering deeper connections with our existing provider value-based partnerships, to accelerate health equity partnerships along with a value-based payment model to address clinical areas most impacted by racial disparities
- For our Medicaid members, we are working to reduce barriers to care by increasing access to immunizations and well care visits, improving maternal health, eliminating barriers to transportation, and increasing access to mental health care and dental services
- Became the first Minnesota health plan to create a gender services consultant position, committed to supporting inclusive and equitable care and service to transgender and non-binary members
Community
Through the Blue Cross Foundation and the Center for Prevention we have historically focused our funding on initiatives and partnerships that center advancing health equity:
- In the last three years alone, the Center for Prevention has provided more than $27 million in funding across the state, and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation has granted nearly $14 million to support Minnesota communities
- Provided $5M in funding to the U of M to create the Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
- Early in the pandemic, we saw the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on marginalized communities. In response the Blue Cross Foundation contributed more than $1 million to support those most impacted by the virus and to fund an anti-racism campaign to confront violence and discrimination toward Asian Americans
Find out more about the innovative work of the Foundation and the Center for Prevention.
Public policy
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota stands behind its declaration of racism as a public health crisis by advocating for policy change to dismantle systemic racism.
- We supported the passage of HR 1, a landmark resolution passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives to declare racism a public health crisis, that created a House Select Committee on Racial Justice which made recommendations to address racial and health equity.
- We advocated to local governments to pass racism as a public health crisis declarations and proclamations, including several of the most populous municipalities in the state, including Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Minneapolis and Bloomington.
- We built our policy agenda to include public health and social determinants of health issues that most disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian Pacific Islander communities aimed at changing systems and structures and getting to the root cause of the inequities that we experience in our state.
- Partnering with and funding the BIPOC-led, community-based organization Voices for Racial Justice to organize and lead a racial and health equity policy coalition. This cross-cultural coalition will advocate for and influence policies to impact racial and health equity at the local, regional and state levels.
Narrative change
We have been working to change the mainstream narrative on health through a number of ways, including our multi award-winning five year partnership with ThreeSixty Journalism among other initiatives.
- Empowering the next generation of diverse storyteller
- Highlighting the incredible community work to address inequities
- Working with Greater Minnesota communities like Willmar to address barriers to health faced by an increasingly diverse population by building connections and giving a voice to all in the community
- Partnering with Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) to provide BIPOC communities with information about the COVID-19 vaccine
Videos & resources
Use this series of resources to better understand the words that are the foundational elements of the conversations we need to have.
Podcast: The State We're In
A podcast that explores themes related to health, racial and health equity and community. Start being a part of the discussion.
Health equity animated
Videos inspired by the community explain equity vs. equality, how zip code, race, income and gender impact equity, and what is the cost of health inequities.
Reading list
A list of recommended books on race and racism from a range of experts, including Black, Indigenous, Hmong and Latine, and other authors of color.
