Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
Becker's Pay Your Issues podcast. Thrilled today to
be joined by a special guest. Melissa Skotigard
is the chair of the Cigna Group Foundation.
Melissa, thank you so much for taking the
time to sit down with us on the
podcast today. Thank you. Thanks for having me,
Jacob.
Well, Melissa, we're super glad to have you
join us for the recording today. But before
we dive into everything we wanna talk with
you about, can you tell us a little
bit more about yourself, your background in health
care, and what it is that you're doing
today at the Cigna Group?
Terrific.
So, Jacob, again, thank you for having me.
So today, I had communications at the Cigna
Group, I've been in communications here since 2018,
and I also have the privilege of serving
as the chair of the Cigna Group Foundation
and heading our community programs.
I'll note though that I started my career
way back many, many, many years ago
in social work. I worked with the mentally
ill and I worked with with homeless families.
So what I love about what I get
to do today is I really get to
drive systemic change in health care with my
role
and leading the foundation.
And I also get to
work grassroots
as a board member at Make A Wish
Connecticut, something I'm really passionate about.
So I get to blend both systemic change
in health care with being active,
at the at the grassroots level.
Fantastic.
So a long history with the Cigna Group.
And as part of that, from what I
understand, the company has launched
a refreshed community engagement strategy that started last
year.
Tell us a little bit more about that.
What does that entail, and and what's happening
with that this year?
Yeah. Good. Great. Thanks for the question. So
yes, we launched a refresh community engagement strategy
about a year ago now, and for us,
we took a step back
coming out of the pandemic
and really looked at our programs. A lot
of things were changing in the environment.
And I'll just couple I'll just cite a
couple of them.
First is
our employees were coming back into the office,
and what we found was our employees really
wanted to get involved in the community
and have more
collaboration
and team activities
with their colleagues, and volunteerism
is a great way to do it.
So that was that was kind of number
one for us. Number two was the nature
of nonprofits
themselves
changed through the pandemic,
and the needs of community organizations,
changed.
So that was also
a force of change.
The third dynamic
for the Cigna group was we had a
couple of signature programs that we put into
place
actually at the beginning of the pandemic.
One in particular called healthier kids for our
future,
which was a five year commitment. And that
program came to its natural end.
And so we had an opportunity to take
a step back and look at refreshing our
strategy.
With that, we decided
to to really go after best practices
and look at fewer grants
and bigger grants so that we could have
more impact
and outcomes with our community partners.
The other thing I'd mention is again our
employees really wanted to get involved in community
activities and so for us
we stepped back and took a pivot to
focus on three primary areas of giving
instead of one signature program with Healthier Kids
for our Future.
So those three areas are
one, youth mental health.
Two is a focus on veterans and in
particular housing and security for veterans,
and the third is around health equity.
The way that we got to those three
really was aligning around our business priorities and
focus. So starting with what do we do
and how can we make an impact.
Secondly,
is where our employee passions are, and third
is where our customers are based. So we
also looked at,
our customers,
and we looked at data around where we
have high and very high social determinants of
health needs
and tried to prioritize our focus, in that
way.
Got it. Understood. So your employees were or
they were coming back to the office post
pandemic. You wanted them more involved in in
the foundation's work. Nonprofit needs a change post
pandemic, and and, ultimately, you're looking to make
a bigger impact. So
take us through why why the foundation chose
the specific commitments that it did,
and what are some of the goals associated
with with each one of those? Perfect.
So I'll start with the first one, youth
mental health. And and I'm a parent, a
parent of two teenagers.
So this is certainly near and dear to
my heart.
Again, coming out of the pandemic, we saw
as as a nation in a global community
arise in
youth mental health and the needs around around
mental health. In fact, I, the CDC just
had a study that one in five high
school students considered suicide in 2023.
That's alarming. That's alarming as a parent, and
it's it's alarming as as just
a leader and a community leader.
Secondly,
on veterans,
so switching to veterans,
this one is also critically important. Veterans are
experiencing
housing instability
and they have increased odds of mental distress
and also
suicide.
So again, uphill battles, some incredible barriers facing
veterans,
forty thousand veterans go without shelter on any
given night in The US.
And so really focusing on,
housing and security is the focus there.
The third is around health equity. And we
know that 80% of a person's health is
affected by things outside of the doctor's office.
So think about things like healthy foods,
transportation,
getting to to the doctor, and
health literacy
are absolutely
essential.
So we focused on that third area around
health equity
for that reason.
I would just also call out that we
looked at again where we have
customers
and patients of the Cigna group
and according to our data where there's high
and very high social determinants of health risks.
And we also focused further
based on that data in 10 states
and limited international
support
because we don't have unlimited resources.
So in addition to the three areas of
focus that I,
spoke about, also where we focus,
from a geographic
standpoint, we also,
zeroed in on so that we could have
bigger impact
in fewer states
and in fewer areas of focus.
Alright. Well, understood, Melissa. So teen mental health
issues, veterans care, health equity, all clearly a
top priority,
for the for the foundation right now. Can
you expand on any of these initiatives for
us?
What how how many in terms of the
grants, how large they are that are going
to these groups, and and any feedback you're
hearing, on the ground,
from some of the the people that you're
serving.
Yeah. Certainly.
Thanks for the question.
So we have committed more than 27,000,000
in grants over three years.
That number, Jacob, varies year to year. So
I'm not going to give you a hard
and fast number of how many grants we'll
give go forward because we really look at
who are the right partners,
and based on the applications that come in.
I will though give you just a couple
of examples
to the nonprofits
and we've had 60 grants,
so far.
Just a few examples to call out. So
in the youth bucket,
the McCall Foundation, which is here in Connecticut,
which is where I'm based, they have a
new Spanish speaking clinical team and expanded access
to culturally appropriate care
to residents in the Waterbury, Connecticut area.
And from a national perspective, we've partnered up
with the Boys and Girls Club of America
as a national partner for youth commitment. And
in fact, I was just in the boys
and girls club in Pasadena
last week.
And that particular club, as you might imagine,
with the recent wildfires
in the area,
the the club kids, they are facing just
incredible
hardship, and that club is a lifeline for
those children.
More than 70 families in that club have
been impacted
by the fires. People have lost their homes
and also schools in the area,
have been lost. So the Boys and Girls
Club is a really important partner for us,
and an amazing nonprofit that just does incredible
work across The US.
In the veterans area, a couple of examples.
Operation Finally Home
provides homes and and home modifications
for wounded, ill, and injured veterans and first
responders and their families
in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas.
So again, that's that's in veterans.
In health equity we focused in two communities
really trying to go deeper into
specific communities
and again looked at data based on the
social determinants of health needs and so those
two communities are Houston where we're focused on
obesity and diabetes
and Hartford which is really focused around
access to care, how do we get to
primary care, so think mobile vans, really helping
to make sure people can get to the
care that that they need.
So those two were stood up actually last,
those two community programs were stood up last,
and a couple of grantee partners include Bread
of Life,
the Hispanic Health Coalition and that's in Houston,
And in Hartford,
the Hartford Public Library,
Malta House, and Wheeler Clinic have been amazing
partners,
for us as well.
Wow. Well, clearly, such creative
and impactful work going on in communities
all over the country, and it's it's interesting
to hear you talk about how data driven
this process is as well for you all.
Melissa, earlier in our conversation, you were talking
about how you you've really worked to get
more Cigna employees involved in this important work.
Can you can you talk to us a
little bit more about that? How are employees
involved directly in in this all, and and
why is it so important ultimately?
Yeah. So,
for our employees,
it it really is
volunteerism is part of who we are. It
is a pillar of our values
and and why people come to work here
is our focus on community and giving back.
As you would expect from a health services
company, it just is a fabric of who
we are.
And coming again, out of the pandemic, what
we found with our employees is a big
desire
to really be engaged
and be active in in the community.
Through the pandemic, many people,
certainly myself included,
I felt an absence
of being connected to the community
in the way that I can through volunteerism.
Still could be active through things like, you
know, online programs and and writing letters and
making calls to
elderly,
shut ins. So certainly, it was active,
but,
our folks really wanted to get much more
hands on and engage with each other.
We also,
put some more of our resources
and our grant dollars behind our
employees,
giving back. So if our employees,
volunteer a certain amount of time,
we will donate,
small grants on their behalf to nonprofits in
recognition of that volunteer time.
So again, for us, it's just about tremendous
pride and as a result of the programs
that we put into place, we saw almost
a 30%
year over year increase in volunteerism
between 2024
and 2023.
And not only is that good for our
employee morale and productivity,
but it also equates to more than 5,600,000
in economic value right back into the communities
in recognition of that time.
Wow. I mean, it's amazing to hear. That's
such an enterprise wide focus for you all.
Before we go, Melissa, what else are we
missing? Any final thoughts or final bits of
advice you wanna offer the other health care
leaders listening in right now?
Yeah. Look, this is not easy to pivot.
A company is giving,
giving grants and and volunteers and is incredibly
personal
to to people. People care deeply
about
causes in the community.
But I would advocate
to other leaders
and
business leaders
to not be afraid of change,
to really be guided by data and to
help understand where your dollars can have the
most impact,
and also to
really tap into your employees.
At least for for the Cigna group, our
people want to do even more. And so
tapping into that employee pride and engaging them,
I think, is is also
something I would advise.
Wonderful. Well, Melissa, thank you so much for
taking the time to sit down with us
and for sharing a little bit about the
important work that's going on under your leadership.
We really appreciate it. Thanks, Jacob.
And if you'd like to listen to more
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