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 7 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. For more information, visit highmark.com/brightbluefutures and read 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 2023, the Highmark Caring Foundation provided $5 million to aid this program. Find 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 2023, Highmark Foundation provided more than $11 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 2023, the Highmark West Virginia Charitable Fund for Health provided more than $1 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 five nonprofit organizations that addressed the gaps in access to behavioral and mental health.

  The United Concordia Dental Charitable Fund provided more than $1 million in funding throughout the U.S. to serve the health needs of the community, including: workforce development programs; scholarships to dental schools; community oral health and dental care efforts for the uninsured and underinsured; and diversity and inclusion initiatives. For example, the fund supports Mission of Mercy in Pennsylvania to provide free dental care to uninsured and underinsured adults and children in Pennsylvania.

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

  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 $4 million to health-focused programs and projects in 2023.

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 $4 million in funding in 2023 to support hospital-based programs, services and facility upgrades to improve the overall well-being of the patients and communities served.

  Nearly $800,000 in funding went to support the TAP Programs from Forbes Hospital Foundation, West Penn Hospital Foundation, and Saint Vincent Foundation. TAP is a first-of-its-kind work-study program in the region designed to significantly increase the number of diverse candidates for AHN employment opportunities across various allied health fields.

  Suburban Health Foundation supported the expansion of AlphaLab Health, a life sciences accelerator, to address a known gap in Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial life sciences sector, supporting research directly related to the delivery of care to AHN patients and the communities served by AHN.

  West Penn Hospital Foundation supported the recovery and health outcomes of burn survivors with the funding to purchase the Lumenis ULTRApulse^® Alpha Laser. AHN West Penn Hospital is the only location in a four-hour radius to provide this new laser therapy, which enables physicians to treat and rehabilitate scars more effectively while reducing patient discomfort, downtime and thermal damage. The approach promotes quicker healing, reduces post-traumatic stress disorder, and drastically reduces the need for narcotics, anxiolytics and antidepressants.

  West Penn Hospital Foundation expanded the funding of "Empowered Relief" in support of patients at West Penn Hospital, as well as the broader network, as AHN continues to move forward a coordinated response to the mental health crisis, piloting innovative care treatments that could be scaled broadly. The Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Institute at AHN is committed to advancing and implementing evidence-based mental health services that are accessible and affordable, and that offer behavioral health pain medicine that is of equivalent effectiveness to pharmaceutical-based treatments.

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 as it focuses on supporting health equity in its communities by expanding access with a workforce that represents the communities it serves. The organization holds itself accountable for creating change.

In 2023, EEHI focused on collaborating with community members, community-based organizations, health care systems, government entities and businesses to create a unified strategy that addresses medical and social needs. Through the First Steps and Beyond (FSB) Program, it is working with its partners and the FSB community advisory board to address infant prematurity by increasing access to health care for Black mothers and birthing people across Allegheny County. It is also providing education and support to birthing providers, enhancing the Trauma Informed Model of Maternity Care to encourage positive outcomes, and supporting infant care with birth workers even after the parent and baby are home from the hospital and throughout the fourth trimester.

Through EEHI, Highmark Health also pursues equity in access to comprehensive preventive health services for under-resourced populations by removing barriers through community-led mobile services. This project aims to reduce the prevalence and progression of chronic conditions, such as cancer, cardiovascular and other chronic diseases associated with related health inequities. This is accomplished by providing comprehensive health screenings in under-resourced communities through community-led outreach.

EEHI highlights from 2023 include:

 
• Health Equity — In three years, the AHN Women's Institute has nearly reached the five-year First Steps and Beyond goal of reducing Black infant deaths by 25%, and White infant deaths have been reduced by double digits. Because of this success, a planned expansion will move this work into Delaware, West Virginia, and western New York in 2024. Additionally, 165 community events, more than 2,500 biometric screenings, and 100 echocardiograms were conducted during 2023.
• Belonging — 14% increase in team member participation in 10 Business Resource Groups (BRGs); 44% overall increase in BRGs since October 2021 relaunch; and acknowledged by Circle of Hope Award, National Association of Corporate Directors Award, and Corporate Equality Index 100 (in PA, WV, Delaware), among others.
• Workforce Diversity and Academic Contributor — Six clinicians recruited for Talent Attraction Program Pittsburgh (loan repayment program) to advance health equity; 10% increase in Resident's Second Look program participants; nine Magovern Scholars focused on Health Equity; improved team member recruitment, hiring and retention across entire enterprise.
• Accreditations — $3.4 million earned for successful completion of PA Hospital Quality Incentive Program on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (REHD) and 13 Health Equity accreditations completed or in progress.
• Workplace Inclusion — Nearly 19,000 employees trained in inclusion, bias, Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards and the new Patient Accommodation Center; 94% indicating new motivation to make positive impact.
• Accountability — Individualized DEI Strategies developed with executive vice presidents and other leaders, and the DEI Playbook for Leaders published to create a roadmap for creating an inclusive workplace, freeing employees to be their best.

As an integrated health care company, Highmark Health's efforts to become a more sustainable company align with its corporate values. The organization strives to improve the health of the communities it serves and manage the assets that have been entrusted to its care, which drives the realization of its corporate mission.

Highmark Health's overarching sustainability principles include:

• Reducing energy use and conserving water throughout facilities.
• Renovating, constructing, operating and maintaining facilities in accordance with green and high-performance building practices.
  • AHN Wexford, one of AHN's newest full-service hospitals, was awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. As the most widely used green building rating system in the world, LEED is a transformative tool that ensures a building is designed and operated to achieve high performance, improve human health and protect the environment.
  • In 2021, Highmark Health achieved the WELL Health-Safety Rating for 2.4 million square feet of its administrative real estate. This includes the corporate headquarters, largest offices and data center. This rating is renewed annually and was achieved for 2023. The WELL Health-Safety Rating is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating for all new and existing building and space types focusing on operational policies, maintenance protocols, stakeholder engagement and emergency plans to address a post-COVID-19 environment now and into the future.
  • The data center also achieved its annual ENERGY STAR certification. Compared with its peers, an ENERGY STAR certified building uses 35% less energy, generates 35% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and costs less per square foot to operate.
• Donating over 148 tons of surplus office furniture and supplies to area nonprofits such as Global Links since 2017. Donations in 2023 totaled approximately 55 tons. Additionally, AHN maintains a medical supplies surplus donation program with local community organizations focused on performing charity work and mission trips to benefit global health, education, infrastructure and disaster relief efforts.