Cigna Funds Education, Workforce to Improve Social Determinants

The Cigna Foundation has announced a new grant program that will center on addressing academic and workforce needs in order to reduce social determinants of health barriers and care disparities. 

The Education and Workforce Development grant program will be open to nonprofit organizations that support students enrolled in Pre-K, kindergarten through eighth grade, high school, and post-secondary and adult education. 

To improve access to education, the Cigna Foundation is seeking nonprofit applicants that excel in helping underserved and underrepresented students by providing resources that address social determinants of health. 

To qualify, the organizations must address certain factors for each education level. The Cigna Foundation wants nonprofits that focus on honing Pre-K children’s cognitive and social development. Qualifying programs will also enhance students’ language, literacy, math, and science abilities. 

The expectations for kindergarten through eighth-grade level students are similar, with the central focus of helping students excel in language, literacy, and STEM subjects. 

The ideal nonprofit for high schoolers will support students both during their high school experience and as they plan for the future. The program will introduce students to healthcare careers and encourage them to achieve their high school graduation. 

To support students at the post-secondary and adult academic levels, the nonprofit applicants should be dedicated to expanding and enhancing the healthcare workforce by making adult students aware of public health and population health management strategies. 

One of the grant program’s goals is to help diversify the healthcare workforce and increase cultural competency among healthcare workers in the hopes of reducing care disparities.  

“The Cigna Foundation recognizes the important role that education plays in improving people’s lives and supporting overall public health – and we want to partner with nonprofits who share this commitment,” said Susan Smith, executive director of the Cigna Foundation. 

“This includes encouraging youth to consider health-related jobs, supporting adults who are studying to become health care professionals, and expanding the conversation about health disparities.” 

The application process opens on May 24 and closes on June 18, 2021. Cigna is already planning to open a second application cycle in 2022. 

Education—both in terms of accessibility and quality— is one of the five social determinants of health domains. Higher-level education leads to better health outcomes and sets up children to have a higher income in the future, as well as better healthcare. The support from the grant program could better prepare students for their futures and provide them with additional resources to overcome care disparities.  

Focusing exclusively on underserved communities when providing support and access to education can address social determinants of health directly. 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) is another payer that sought to diversify the healthcare workforce. The BCBSIL Institute for Physician Diversity recruits underrepresented medical students, resident physicians, and clinical faculty to work at facilities that are part of BCBSIL’s Health Equity Hospital Quality Incentive Pilot Program. 

Cigna’s education and workforce development grant program seeks not only to diversify the healthcare workforce but also to expand it. There is a lack of healthcare workers, especially in the behavioral healthcare sector. This deficit of workers creates a roadblock between patients and receiving the care that they need. 

“There is an enormous shortage of behavioral health providers, and within that we also don’t have enough behavioral health providers who are taking insurance,” said Marilyn Serafini, director of the Health Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

“Oftentimes, a patient who is trying to find a behavioral health provider to work with, they will go through that list and they can’t find somebody who is taking new patients, or there’s a long wait.” 

The Cigna Foundation’s grant program supports organizations that work to address this shortage of healthcare professionals directly by introducing students to healthcare careers and helping them continue on the workforce path.