CareFirst Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2022

Our mission at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) is advancing better health outcomes through affordable, accessible, equitable and quality healthcare for the people we serve and our communities. To do this, we must represent our diverse communities internally and prioritize hiring, supporting and retaining a workforce composed of people with different backgrounds and lived experiences.

CareFirst’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) oversees the work and creation of programs to create and sustain a supportive environment where employees feel like they belong, are engaged and connected to our businesses for overall collective success. We have built an organizational culture committed to furthering DEI in our workplace through various internal and external initiatives to serve our communities best. We are extremely proud of how far we’ve come in building a diverse workforce, and in 2022, our workforce demographics included:  

• Over 50% of our workforce represents an ethnic minority, with 113 individuals in senior leadership positions.
• 70% of the workforce identifies as female, with 156 individuals in senior leadership positions.
• 37% of the organization are in the generation cohorts of millennials (with 57 individuals in senior leadership).

One example of our DEI work is through our employee resource groups (ERG), or employee-led groups formed around diversity elements like ethnicity, age, military status, sexual orientation and more. These groups come together to connect employees and foster empathy, understanding and community. They work closely with CareFirst’s human resources division to hire and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce. We have nine ERGs at CareFirst with over 2,400 employees participating—representing more than 42% of our workforce!

With a great outlook in 2022, we recognize there is room to grow. Our corporate strategy includes representation targets that inform how we recruit, develop and retain an inclusive workforce. Only 3% of our workforce identifies as Hispanic/LatinX or a veteran. We now have corporate goals to increase those percentages to 4.7% and 4.8% respectively by 2025.

CareFirst remains committed to fostering a work environment and culture where people of all backgrounds can thrive.