CareFirst Named to 2024 Modern Healthcare’s Diversity Leaders List
Baltimore/Washington, D.C. – Today, Modern Healthcare recognized CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst), one of the country's largest not-for-profit healthcare organizations, as one of its 2024 Diversity Leaders. This prestigious award reaffirms CareFirst’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within the organization and the broader healthcare industry.
CareFirst brings employees into the conversation. Nine Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) create safe spaces for more than 4,000 employees to support each other, build an inclusive workplace and foster innovation within the organization.
The organization is also committed to talent acquisition programs to broaden workforce and leadership diversity, including recruiting, retaining and promoting people of all races, genders, backgrounds and identities.
CareFirst prioritizes building a leadership team and culture that reflects the population they serve and bringing diverse perspectives to the table to accomplish the organization’s mission:
- 33% of CareFirst’s C-suite are women
- 33% of CareFirst’s C-suite are people of color
- Of nearly 6,000 full-time employees, 44% identify as people of color
- 66% of CareFirst’s Board of Directors includes people of color
Over the past year, CareFirst has developed processes designed to support equitable talent identification, coaching and development. These include a “Career Pathways” program that furthers the skills and portfolios of our leadership team, a Week of Equity and Action that helps surface and mitigate bias in decision-making, and diverse slate interviews in which 30-50% of the candidates interviewed were women and/or people of color.
“Our Diversity Leaders in Healthcare awards have been changed to honor a new group of individual honorees each year and our 2024 class sets the bar high,” said Mary Ellen Podmolik, editor-in-chief of Modern Healthcare. “Some have been working on DEI initiatives for decades while others are newer to their positions and already have made a difference. The organizations honored set an example, from their leadership ranks to their programming efforts, of the results that can be achieved across a workplace. We hope industry leaders continue to prioritize these efforts to better reflect, internally and externally, the communities they serve.”
Profiles of all the winners are featured online on August 12 and in the September 9 print issue of Modern Healthcare.
About CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
In its 87th year of service, CareFirst, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit healthcare company which, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, offers a comprehensive portfolio of health insurance products and administrative services to 3.5 million individuals in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. In 2023, CareFirst infused $233 million in support of regional community impact to improve overall health and advance accessible, affordable, equitable, high-quality healthcare. To learn more about CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, visit www.carefirst.com.