Walking the Talk
Humana Working to Address Social Determinants of Health

In its 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, Humana Inc. — one of the nation’s leading health and wellbeing companies — details its continuing commitment to helping the individuals and communities it serves live their best lives by expanding and improving access to affordable healthcare.

“At Humana, we see firsthand the impact that access to quality, affordable care has on our members and employees,” said Humana President and CEO Bruce D. Broussard. “Throughout our 2018 CSR Report, we’ve highlighted many of the ways we’re working to improve the ‘health of care’ — from our focus on integrated care delivery, to our work in value-based care, to our companywide efforts to address social determinants of health that impact the health and lives of the people we serve.”

In 2018, Humana heightened its focus on initiatives targeting social determinants of health — conditions in the places where people live, learn, work and play, such as social isolation, food insecurity and lack of transportation access — that can often result in roadblocks to good health. Humana’s wide-ranging capabilities uniquely position the company to address health outside of the doctor’s office — and deliver integrated care that can improve people’s health and quality of life.

Humana’s 2018 CSR Report highlights the company’s commitment to providing whole-person healthcare, investments in supporting healthy communities, and dedication to achieving sustainable growth through responsible business practices and environmental stewardship. The report features several examples of how Humana is inspiring health and wellbeing: 

For people

• Humana Employees: In 2018, Humana achieved its employee Bold Goal, increasing employees’ Healthy Days by 20 percent, as measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Days tool. Since 2012, Humana employees have gained 2.3 million more Healthy Days, or roughly an extra week of better days per year for each employee. The company set a new goal to achieve 500,000 more Healthy Days for employees by the end of 2022, using 2018 as a baseline.

• Integrated Care: Humana teamed up with Walgreens to provide easier access to primary care and other services for seniors in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Two newly established Partners in Primary Care clinics at Walgreens stores in the region combine primary care, pharmacy, in-person health plan support and other services for Medicare beneficiaries. Additionally, through completing its minority ownership acquisitions of Kindred at Home and Curo Health, Humana began testing and learning new care and payment models in five communities — to improve health outcomes of members with multiple chronic conditions.

• Opioid Addiction: As part of the national effort to combat opioid overuse, Humana set a goal to reduce the number of members receiving opioid prescriptions greater than 100 morphine milligram equivalent (MME), a dosage that raises the risks of opioid overdose, by 40 percent. In 2018, Humana closed in on its goal, reducing the number of members receiving prescriptions greater than 100 MME by 36 percent.

For communities

• Bold Goal: From 2015 to 2018, Humana Medicare Advantage members in Humana’s original seven Bold Goal communities, places where Humana is working to achieve its goal of helping people improve their health 20 percent by 2020, experienced a 2.7 percent improvement in their Healthy Days. Meanwhile, Humana seniors in San Antonio improved their Healthy Days by 9.8 percent, marking the halfway point toward their Bold Goal. The company screened more than 500,000 people for social determinants of health needs in these Bold Goal communities and developed toolkits to help physicians screen for and address social isolation, loneliness, and food insecurity in patients.

• The Humana Foundation: In 2018, the Humana Foundation invested $7.4 million in nine organizations located in Bold Goal communities as part of its new community investment strategy focused on creating sustainable results addressing social determinants of health. The Foundation aims to co-create communities where leadership, culture and systems work to improve and sustain long-term positive health outcomes. For example, collaborated with San Antonio-based nonprofits in the strategic investment program’s first year, to address social isolation and food insecurity in area seniors.

For the future 

• Environmental Goals: In 2018, Humana set new environmental targets for greenhouse gas emissions and waste, using a 2017 baseline, with a goal to reach or exceed the targets by the end of 2022.

  • Humana set a new goal of 2.1 percent year-over-year greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and exceeded the 2.1 percent reduction in 2018. The goal covers Humana’s portfolio of owned and leased properties under direct company control. Sustainability-investment projects and building-optimization changes have made most of the impact.

  • The goal was set at 60 percent waste diversion. By recycling and reusing more, and sending less waste to landfills, Humana is currently ahead of its waste-diversion goal — achieving a rate of 60.3 percent at the sites where the company and its vendors manage waste and recycling services.

• Inclusion & Diversity: In 2018, Humana formed GenUs, a multigenerational network resource group that helps employees create and celebrate intergenerational connections. The company also established nine new Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Councils to foster employee inclusion and belonging within the changing landscape of the workforce.

CSR Report materiality assessment & reporting standard

In the fall of 2018, Humana completed a third-party materiality assessment — including interviews and surveys with more than 1,000 stakeholders from across the country in an effort to learn what corporate responsibility topics are of the greatest significance to them. The assessment engaged employees, members, healthcare providers, suppliers and community partners. Details of this materiality assessment are included in the CSR Report.

Humana collected and reported its 2018 CSR Report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the world’s most recognized standards for environmental, social and governance reporting. GRI is an independent international organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues.