Highlights: Corporate Social Responsibility

The Highmark Bright Blue Futures charitable giving and community involvement program's goal is to ensure healthier, brighter, stronger futures for all. Its focus is to improve equitable access to care, quality of life and economic resilience in the communities served. The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program aspires to improve outcomes in two critical areas: Community Health and Community and Economic Resilience.

The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program values being an active, innovative community partner, creating and maintaining meaningful partnerships to achieve lasting positive outcomes. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Highmark Inc. proudly serves nearly seven million members. The commitment goes beyond simply providing grants, and includes leveraging team members’ expertise and passion through volunteerism and convening community groups to drive efficiency and innovation. More information at highmark.com/brightbluefutures, and in the Highmark Bright Blue Futures Annual Report.

The seven charitable foundations affiliated with Highmark Health, including five Allegheny Health Network hospital foundations and Highmark Inc.'s two foundations, have long and proud histories of funding programs that improve the health, well-being, and quality of life for individuals in the communities each organization serves.

Foundations include:

Highmark Inc.

• Caring Foundation
  Funded primarily by Highmark Inc., its sole member, the Caring Foundation supports the Highmark Caring Place, A Center for Grieving Children, Adolescents, and Their Families. In 2022, the Highmark Caring Foundation provided $5 million to aid this program. More information at highmarkcaringplace.com.
• Highmark Foundation
  With support from Highmark Inc., the Highmark Foundation funds programs that promote the health and well-being of the communities served by Highmark Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates.

  In 2022, Highmark Foundation committed more than $12 million in funding to support initiatives that addressed chronic disease, community health, family health, and service delivery systems.

  Highmark Foundation has two restricted funds: the Highmark West Virginia Charitable Fund for Health and the United Concordia Dental Charitable Fund.

  In 2022, the Highmark West Virginia Charitable Fund for Health awarded more than $2 million in funding to support initiatives and programs focused on improving community health, substance use disorders, and social determinants of health for individuals who reside in West Virginia. For example, the fund awarded grants to eight nonprofit organizations that initiated substance use disorder programs that focus on prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and support for long-term recovery.

  The United Concordia Dental Charitable Fund committed more than $1 million in funding throughout the U.S. to serve the health needs of the community, including, but not limited to: workforce development programs; oral health and dental care efforts for the uninsured and underinsured; and diversity and inclusion initiatives. For example, the fund supports the NYU College of Dentistry’s Veterans Oral Care Access Resource program to support comprehensive, free dental care for veterans.

  Additionally, BluePrints for the Community, a grant program to help address the issues faced by Delaware's uninsured and underserved populations, exists as a donor-advised fund at the Delaware Community Foundation, a nonprofit organization that manages and administers charitable funds throughout Delaware. BluePrints for the Community committed $10 million to health-focused programs and projects in 2022.

  More information at highmarkfoundation.org, and in the Highmark Foundation Annual Giving Report.

Allegheny Health Network (AHN)

• Allegheny Health Network Charitable Foundations
  Alle-Kiski Medical Center Trust, Forbes Health Foundation, Saint Vincent Hospital Foundation for Health and Human Services, Suburban Health Foundation, and Western Pennsylvania Hospital Foundation support initiatives associated solely with their hospital facilities to better meet the needs of their communities.

  The five AHN foundations provided more than $6 million in funding in 2022 to support hospital-based programs, services, and facility upgrades to improve the overall well-being of the patients and communities served.

  More information at supportahn.org, and in the AHN Philanthropy Impact Report.

A vital aspect of corporate social responsibility is building and executing a comprehensive internal and external strategy to promote a culture of equity and inclusion across every component of the enterprise.

Through the Enterprise Equitable Health Institute (EEHI), Highmark Health is advancing equity, inclusion and belonging in its recruitment, retention, professional development, and workplace culture practices and standards, as well as in its delivery of quality care and services to patients, members, customers, and communities.

EEHI highlights from 2022 include:

• Recording a significant decrease in Black infant mortality and training over 100 clinicians on obstetrical racism through the First Steps and Beyond initiative.
• Administering over 5,000 COVID-19 vaccines to vaccine-hesitant people to improve access to care.
• Conducting over 800 health screenings for peripheral artery disease (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose) in under-resourced communities to improve access to care.
• Fostering community partnerships through volunteer opportunities and fundraisers to help military and veteran families.
• Recruiting six medical students for the Magovern Scholarship Program and four clinicians for the Talent Attraction Program Pittsburgh (TAPP).
• Increasing Business Resource Group (BRG) membership by 16% to foster employee-led inclusion and engagement; and establishing a new BRG and Employee Resource Group.
• Issuing a new Refusal of Care policy to support clinicians who experience discrimination in the clinical setting and updating the Image and Appearance policy to increase a sense of belonging.
• Authoring a textbook chapter on Disturbing Maternal and Child Health Outcomes Among Vulnerable Populations, within A Population Health Approach to Health Disparities for Nurses.
• Conducting Inclusivity Reset Training for over 13,500 team members to strengthen DEI practices.
• Issuing a DEI Playbook for Leaders to help them design and foster an inclusive workplace and a diverse workforce.
• Establishing three Transformational Highmark Health Committees to create DEI accountability:
  • Transformation Team: 80 leaders, who help implement DEI policy through the Pillars of Organizational Equity
  • DEI Committee: 75 champions and equity officers, who drive transformation throughout organization
  • National Advisory Council: 10 external DEI experts, who provide guidance and accountability
• Celebrating the DEI achievements of Highmark Health business units, departments and institutes to create models of equity for the entire system.

As stewards of the communities Highmark Health serves, the organization believes it has a responsibility to manage resources in a sustainable way.

Top sustainability goals include:

• Reducing energy use and conserving water throughout facilities.
• Achieving the WELL Health-Safety Rating for major facilities. In 2021, Highmark Health achieved the rating for 2.4 million square feet of its administrative real estate. This includes the corporate headquarters and data center. This rating is renewed annually and was achieved for 2022. The data center also achieved its annual ENERGY STAR certification.
• Renovating, constructing, operating, and maintaining facilities in accordance with green and high-performance building practices.
• Reducing, reusing, and recovering waste streams to convert them to valuable resources, thereby minimizing the amount sent to landfills. Examples include over 93 tons of surplus furniture donated to area nonprofits such as Global Links since 2017. Donations in 2022 totaled approximately 16 tons. Additionally, over 900 office chairs were given to employees in support of the enterprise Work from Anywhere strategy.