Payer Invests in Public Health Program To Advance Health Equity

Blue Shield of California is investing $7 million in a UC Berkeley School of Public Health fellowship program to improve health equity and diverse representation in healthcare.

“At Blue Shield, we want to create a healthcare system that’s worthy of all our family and friends, and sustainably affordable,” said Paul Markovich, president and chief executive officer of Blue Shield of California.

“Ensuring that care is equitable is a big part of that, and one way we can help make that happen is employing people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, who can use analytics and relate to the needs of our members. I’m excited about this program because it creates a path to do just that, and I look forward to welcoming the first fellows this fall.”

The Blue Shield of California Health Equity Fellowship program will support graduate-level students from underrepresented communities who are enrolled in the program for data and analytics training. In addition to studying healthcare data, biostatistics, and analytics, the fellows will be able to find internships and mentorships within Blue Shield of California.

The program offers career support such as tutoring, career services, internships, and workshops for professional development. However, Blue Shield of California will also offer personal support such as mental health counseling as well as social and networking opportunities with the program’s alumni.

The program aims to attract students from a range of ethnicities and racial backgrounds such as African American, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander. These groups tend to not be represented in senior healthcare positions.

“The health inequities that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown us the need to build healthcare policies and practices in a culturally sensitive way,” said DD Johnice, vice president of the Health Transformation Lab at Blue Shield of California. 

“Having members of underrepresented communities on the teams that design and build new health solutions, as well as lead innovative healthcare organizations, is critical to transforming health care. We cannot achieve health equity without growing and supporting diverse, top talent.”

The first cohort will consist of 20 students and by the end of the five-year program timeframe, the payer expects to have supported around 100 students attending the program for their master’s and doctoral degrees.

The program will start in August 2022. The payer projected that the company will hire many of the program’s graduates.

“This fellowship will create a pipeline of underrepresented talent in public health and offer wrap-around support – including tutoring and mentoring, projects and internships, cohort experience, and leadership development – to assure their success,” said Michael C. Lu, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. 

“I am grateful to Blue Shield of California for their partnership in helping us build a better and stronger, more diverse and inclusive public health system.”

Prior to these efforts, Blue Shield of California helped fund a nonprofit internship program that sought to improve representation specifically in the behavioral and mental healthcare workforces.

One of the many ways that payers are trying to help reform the healthcare system and promote health equity is by exposing students to more conversations about health equity earlier in their education and offering healthcare opportunities to students from underrepresented communities.

Cigna started a program that seeks to inform high schoolers from underrepresented communities about healthcare workforce opportunities and encourage the advancement in language, literacy, and STEM subjects among kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

Other payers seek to advance health equity by financially promoting culturally specific services.