5 Major Payers Recognized for Employer Sponsored Wellness Benefits

The Business Group on Health has announced the winners of the Business Group on Health Best Employers Award for Excellence in Health & Well-being for providing strong employer-sponsored wellness benefits to their own employees.

Among them were five major health insurers: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Cigna, CVS Health, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and UnitedHealth Group. However, the entrants were not restricted to the healthcare industry but, rather, spanned a broad range of industries.

Aside from winning the Best Employers Award, three of these payers received additional citations. Cigna received the Excellence in Mental Health distinction. 

CVS Health received the Excellence in Health Equity citation. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. received the Excellence in Mental Health and the Excellence in Health Equity citations. And, lastly, Humana received the Excellence in Mental Health citation as well.

The Excellence in Health Equity award recognized companies that achieved health equity for employees who identified as part of the LGBTQ+ community, a population with disabilities, or a racial minority group.

This is the seventeenth year that the Business Group on Health has handed out an award to the large companies that have demonstrated leadership in employee well-being and health benefits.

“The winners have demonstrated a strong commitment to employee well-being, all against the backdrop of a pandemic and a parallel mental health crisis,” said Ellen Kelsay, chief executive officer and president of Business Group on Health. “Their creative programs, which achieve goals such as affordable health care access, financial security and healthy living, improve the daily lives of diverse workforces and their families.”

For the 2022 award, the Business Group on Health changed some of its measures to account for major employer-sponsored healthcare benefits trends in the industry including superior benefits in health equity and mental healthcare. The criteria addressed holistic well-being efforts as well as leadership and overall company culture.

In the health equity category, the organization underscored that employers who won this award also addressed social determinants of health barriers. There are several steps that employers can take to help address employees’ social determinants of health needs.

The organization once again awarded its Excellence in Global Health & Well-being Award to recognize companies with a global perspective that are advancing healthcare for employees spread out around the world. 

Employers that won the Excellence in Global Health & Well-being Award also pursued health equity, offering the same health benefits to employees no matter where they were located.

“These are all employers of choice,” said LuAnn Heinen, vice president of the Business Group and leader of the Well-being & Workforce Strategy Institute. “We congratulate each and every one of them for setting such high standards, to benefit workforces for years to come, and for serving as a model for other companies looking to expand benefit offerings.”