Karen Hanlon: Highmark's Hiring of People with Disabilities

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone, welcome to the show, to all of you in the United States and around the world. First, a special shout out to Yoshiko Dart. Yoshiko, thinking about you all the time. You know I love you. And speaking of around the world, Richard Roberts from the State Department, my close friend and diplomat at the Embassy in Brazil. And I'll be seeing him, I hope, later this year. What a great person he is. Fighting the fight, helping me help people with disabilities, which I first met Richard in South Korea with the State Department, then in Japan. So this would be country number 3, but I've also been to, as I mentioned, I've been to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Panama, And you know what? I wouldn't be there if it were not for these great people from the State Department. So I thank them on every show. Cheryl Harris, right in Washington, D.C., reporting to the Secretary of State. I love you, Cheryl. Gang-young in South Korea. He is a phenomenal person. And Venyamin in Kazakhstan. All great leaders. So you understand what I mean? It is they that arranged for me to go to a country, spend a week talking across the country about the employment of people with disabilities and quality of life for people with disabilities. So it's them. That's why I thank them on every show. And as you all know, this is my 20th anniversary on the air, and I have to thank, of course, Voice America, with great people like Tacy Trump and my engineer Andrew, who is awesome. But of course, I have to thank all of you, all of you listeners. I hope you know how much it means to me how you listen faithfully to this show. Thank you so much. And as I always say, if you miss this show while it's live, you know there's a bigger listening audience on demand, whether you're going to Spotify, benderconsult.com, or right back to voiceamerica.com. Well, there is someone I really, really, really have to thank, and that would be Highmark, who sponsors this show and has been the lead sponsor for several years of Disability Matters with Joyce Bender. So how apropos that I would have one of the top, like top of the top leaders at Highmark as our guest today. She is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Highmark Health, but she is also not only my friend, but a friend of all of you with disabilities. Welcome to the show, Karen.

Hanlon. Thank you, Joyce. How are you today?

I am great. And to have you for this much time, wow, that would probably cost zillions of dollars for some other—

thank you for having me.

Well, I'm thrilled to have you. And, and so you all know, as you're listening, whether you're in Australia— by the way, we have countries, 17 listening countries, 17. From China to Australia. And I can tell you, no matter where you are listening to this show, she is the real deal. You know how people talk about, oh yeah, they're going to help me with getting people with disabilities hired? Well, with Karen Hanlon, it really, really happens. And so you all know one other thing. More than one time she has said to me, Joyce, is there anything else I can do to help you? So that's what she's like. And Karen Karen, it truly is an honor to have you with us today. But listeners in the United States and around the world frequently will send us a note and, you know, they had let us know over the years, you know that person, but we don't know that person, but we want to. Could you have them tell more about themselves? So I thought we could start with you, Karen, telling your story, you know, what you do at Highmark, but even how you got started, where you lived, where you went to school, and why you chose the field of finance.

Sure. Yeah, happy to do that. So, I am based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I actually grew up in Pittsburgh. I've never really left here. Went to college about an hour and a half north of the city, got an accounting degree, and out of college I went to work for a large public accounting firm as an auditor. And I was an auditor for 5 years, and in that time was exposed to a number of clients. One of those clients was Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania, which is one of the predecessor companies to what is now Highmark Health. And so, of course, I knew the people at Blue Cross pretty well from my audit work. And when I was thinking about leaving public accounting, they said, hey, you know, you should come down here and work. And, you know, I like the people. I like the culture. I like the business. It is a business with a lot of purpose and a strong mission to it. And, you know, very much operates in service to the community and the people in the community. And so, I just— I joined Highmark, it'll actually be 26 years ago this year. I can't believe it's been that long. But I joined Highmark in a finance role. I was actually a manager in finance at one of our subsidiary companies in my first role. And over the years, you know, took increasingly advanced positions within the finance department. Here and became the CFO for the enterprise in 2014. And so I was in the CFO role from 2014 to 2018. And in 2018, I transitioned into the Chief Operating Officer role, which was a new role for us. We had not had a Chief Operating Officer at the parent company level up to that time. And our CEO, David Holmberg, who Joyce, you have had on your radio program probably more than once. You know, David is very much a visionary, very much a strategist. And we were about to embark on a new 5-year strategy, and he said, you know, "How about if you move into this COO role and lead the implementation of this next strategy?" And so I went ahead and did that, made that move, as I said, in 2018. And I have been doing that since then. In terms of my accountabilities, I'm really leading our, our payer and our provider activities, what we like to call our blended strategy, because we're bringing both the capabilities of the payer and the provider to the table to optimize how we're delivering on behalf of the person that we're serving. And I'm leading what we call our living health strategy, which is really our strategy around the transformation of healthcare to make healthcare more affordable, to make it more accessible to people, to produce better outcomes, better health outcomes, and to simplify the experience for the individual because healthcare can be, you know, a very confusing topic for most people and very difficult to navigate. And so, simplifying that experience, both for the patient or the insurance member, but also for the clinicians that we work with in serving that patient or member, doing the things that we can to reduce some of the administrative complexity on behalf of the clinician as well, so they have more time to spend with the patient, is part of our objective. We're about halfway through what is— what was laid out to be just over a 5-year strategy and are actively building solutions that we believe meet those objectives and embedding them into our insurance products. Highmark is about a $26 billion company. We operate nationwide in terms of our dental business that services people all throughout the US. Also in terms of our stop-loss reinsurance business that operates throughout the US. And then our health insurance business, we are the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan that is servicing Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, parts of New York. And then we have an owned provider system here in, the western part of Pennsylvania called Allegheny Health Network. Allegheny Health Network is comprised of about 14 hospitals, roughly 2,000 doctors, a number of outpatient centers. So we have all of that in western Pennsylvania. And then we have an ownership position in the Penn State Health Care System, which is in the eastern part of Pennsylvania in the Harrisburg market. And then we have partnerships with providers in other parts of that 4-state geography that I talked about in terms of our Blue Cross Blue Shield business. So, you know, it's a sizable enterprise, but as I said earlier, it's a company with a strong mission, a strong sense of purpose that permeates the culture, and You know, I think you see that in the people that work here. As you would expect, I'm oftentimes asked, why have you been there 26 years? Because there aren't a lot of people that have been with one employer for that long. And at the end of the day, it's really because of the purpose of the organization and the people that work here and the culture associated with it.

Yeah, you are really— that is really a great story. So where were you, Karen? You said you were at a subsidiary of Blue Cross. Where was that?

Yeah, I started at what is now known as HM Insurance Group, which is our stop-loss reinsurance company. And back then it was, it was under a different name, but that's the way we know it today.

Okay, because you know what I thought? Don't even tell me you were with Pennwell. Do you remember?

No, but Penwell— Penwell was actually part of, um, back then it was called Transgeneral, was, was the company that I worked for. And Penwell was actually a part of Transgeneral back then.

Wow. Okay, so if you're listening and you're wondering why that— I put that together when she was talking. I said, I wonder if that was Penwell. And so for all you listeners, I know you know, I've told you many times that without Highmark, uh, there wouldn't be a Bender because it's Highmark that stood behind me, uh, in 1995 to really launch the company by agreeing to be a company that would bring, uh, 6 subcontractors on and keep them on for, for 3, 3 years, right? 6 people for 3 years. And That was, of course, Bill Lowry, who you all have heard me talk about many times. And guess where he was? Penwell. I thought, there you have it, the whole circle coming together.

Yeah, yeah, isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing? Well, you see, great people come from that whole thing. But yeah, did you, did you know Bill, Karen?

Did you know him? Yeah. I did.

What?

Yeah, what a great person.

Not well, but I met him a few times.

Um, yeah, honestly, it seems like just the other day I was sitting in his office telling him this idea I have, and, uh, wow, he would never believe. I knew he— I mean, when I'm standing in a country like Kazakhstan, I'm thinking, wow, Bill would never believe it. But you see One man, one decision, and here I am on the radio 20 years. I mean, it's just amazing. That's what's so great about, uh, Highmark and people like you, uh, Karen. And Highmark is such a great company. Um, you, you were telling how you started in accounting or in finance. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think you'd be in this role right now?

No, absolutely not. You know, um, funny story. So I, I, when I went into college, I actually went in as a math major. And, um, this is, you know, a story about the, the power of a great teacher. My, my calculus teacher in high school was just a really great guy, and, and I was you know, I was pretty good at math. And, and I remember him saying to me, you know what you should do? You should go to college for math and go be an actuary. And, and I have to tell you, Joyce, I didn't even know what an actuary did back then, right? I mean, you're 17 years old. And but, but because I respected him so much as a teacher, I was like, oh, that sounds like a good plan. Why wouldn't I do that? And so I went into college as a math major. And, you know, thought that I'd maybe come out and be an actuary. And my freshman year, first semester, I'm taking my calculus class, and I was failing the class. I literally had to drop the course because I was failing it. And so I dropped the course, and I thought, well, I guess this math major thing isn't going to work out for me. But, you know, I'm pretty good at numbers, so maybe I'll go into accounting. And so that's how I became an accounting major, and then, you know, as I said, went down the audit path for a number of years before landing at Highmark.

Wow. Very hard job.

But I would have never thought that I was— well, I would have never thought that I was, you know, would be doing what I'm doing today, or had the opportunities that I've had to do the different things that I've done through my career. There's just no way I would have envisioned it.

Yeah, you, you leave college to get this, uh, auditor with a, uh, what were back then? There were 8, right?

Weren't there 8 back then? Uh, that was right when they went from the Big 8 firms to the Big 6. When I joined, there were 6.

Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, when you took that role, imagine— never would you imagine you would be number 2, basically the person running the operations of— how large did you say Highmark is?

$23 billion in revenue.

There you are. There you are.

I know.

And you see, you don't have to get an A+ in calculus to be in this role.

I use that with my kids all the time. Well, it's okay to fail once in a while. It's about how you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward.

Oh, you are a great story. Boy, Karen, you're a great story. I hope every young person listening to this show, everyone with a disability, of course everyone, but first of all, I told you about the people at Hymer. Karen is an example of that. Person that doesn't feel like, wow, I'm all that, or condescending, or, you know, she's authentic. Can't you tell by what she's talking about? So why I'm bringing this up, no matter what, don't, don't roll yourself out over one thing you can't achieve at the beginning. It's what Karen said, it's the getting back up. It's the getting back up that makes the difference. And I'll bet, Karen, even in your career with employees, those that had that, uh, you know how they say the B student can be the best student? I'll bet you've seen many students, many employees, that they didn't have a master's degree or an MBA, but no matter what happened, they kept going and they became successful.

Absolutely. Uh, there's no doubt, Joyce. Um, and you know, I, I could point to multiple examples where, uh, of very successful people where, you know, you would say, you know, they didn't have the top-tier education, they didn't have, you know, all the benefits or luxuries that somebody else had through their opportunities, but they obviously worked hard. They knew how to relate to people and how to talk to people and how to treat people. And, you know, they were thoughtful people. They were good thinkers. And through all of that, you know, they built strong teams, and they built teams that were capable of solving problems. And I think that's a big part of success, you know, is being able to build strong teams that are capable of solving problems. Complex problems. And, you know, that— that there are lots of people that go to really top-notch schools that can do that really well, but there are also a lot of people that don't go to school at all that can do that really well, you know. And I think you just have to keep that in mind.

Yes, I agree. Which brings me to a great topic, which is that many When I speak different places, or if I go to a conference, a lot of times, as you know, women are not at the same level as men as CEOs or in leadership roles at companies. And frequently I'll have people say, how, what do you do? Why do— how can some women get up there and other women can't? And I wanted to know what advice you have for women listening to this show, whether they're here or in England, no matter where they are? What's your view about attaining a leadership role? Because you have— you're one of those in that 37%. What's your advice about that?

Yeah, I think it's a couple of things. I think one is Leaning in, you know, put, put yourself in a position to get the opportunities. Volunteer yourself to go do the special project or to take a new opportunity. Don't be afraid of it. You know, don't be afraid to jump in and to jump into an opportunity where the answer to you isn't clear. You know, because you give yourself an opportunity to figure it out. You know, and those sorts of things allow you to create a name for yourself, to create a reputation, you know, to build relationships with others throughout the enterprise or the community that you're in that you'll be able to leverage for other opportunities later. There's no doubt, you know, Highmark is great in terms of, women having opportunities. 50% of our executive team are women. If you look at the organization at large, you know, we've got roughly 37,000 employees. Over half of them are women. It, you know, I have never felt like there was a glass ceiling here that, you know, I was being limited by. So I've definitely lived in an environment that I think, you know, has been has been helpful to me. But I would also say in terms of the actions that I as an individual could take, it comes down to what I said earlier, which is lean in, look for the opportunities, take the opportunities. And I think also, you know, figure out what your priorities are and don't be afraid to declare those, you know, different. You have different priorities at different stages of life. You know, my kids are a little bit older now. I have more freedom to engage in ways at work that I didn't have when, you know, they were 8, 6, and 1. You know, it's just— and that's okay, you know. And I think, especially as a parent, you have to decide what works best for you in terms of making sure that you feel like you're doing the right things to take care of your family and that you're finding the right balance for yourself at work. And I think it's okay to understand your priorities and make your choices and know that at different points you're going to prioritize different things.

Yeah, I think that's— I think that's good advice. I think that one thing you're also good at— this is my observation— is you're good at building relationships. And I, I think that is so important because you can't get other people really interested in your career if you're, if you're just by yourself, you know what I mean?

I think that's absolutely true. Yeah, I mean, you know, as I was coming up through the finance organization here One of the accountabilities that I had for, you know, most of my time in finance up until, you know, I moved into the CFO role was financial planning and analysis. And, you know, that function is about understanding what's going on with the business and how it's translating into the numbers and thinking about how you're going to forecast the numbers based on what the business is going to do in the future. And that, that role gave me an opportunity opportunity to be connected to all of our business leaders and to get to know them better, also to get to know our business better. And it was really influential in allowing me to build relationships that increasingly became important for me throughout my career. And that's part of why I say, you know, lean in, ask for the opportunities, go do something that might feel kind of out of the ordinary for you because through that you will build relationships and those things will be helpful to you later.

Oh yes, because that's how people end up looking out for you because they remember and want to engage and help you as you're moving up. I know one person you feel a lot about like that with is Nan DeTurk.

Sure, yep.

What a great mentor, huh?

Yeah, I mean, Nan was— she was our— the CFO before me. She— I'm going to guess it was maybe 2005 to 2014 when I stepped in as the CFO. And I worked for Nan. I joined the organization in 1997. I started working for Nan in 1998. And so I worked for her from '98 until 2014 when she moved into a different role and I became the CFO. And she was a very strong female leader, very much an advocate for me, gave me that space to try some things and do some things that maybe somebody else wouldn't have given me the space for, allowed me to raise my hand and say, you know, hey, let me go do that, or give me that opportunity. And, and, you know, many times, probably most times, she gave me that opportunity to go do those things. And it was very important in my career. So yeah, I'm very appreciative to her for, you know, the skills and capabilities that, you know, by working with her, I was able to build over the years. There's no doubt that it was important in terms of, you know, me taking the next couple of steps in my career.

And Nan, I still remember— because Nan, I know you're going to hear this show— I still remember you saying to me, have you met Karen Hanlon yet? She's really good. I remember, I remember. Yeah, saying that to me. And the thing I'll never forget, I know, Karen, you were there, is that Nan asked me to speak to her whole group, all like 300 people or more. I can't remember the exact amount. And when she went up there, she said, I can't tell you to hire people with disabilities. Or no, I'm not going to tell you to hire people with disabilities, but I'm going to challenge you. To hire people with disabilities. Never forget that. Such a great person. Well, with that, it's time for the news with our news anchor, Perry Jude Radesik, CEO of Disability Rights of Pennsylvania for the entire state of Pennsylvania. Uh, Perry, are you ready for us with the news?

I am Joyce Bender, and before I give the news, I just want to thank Karen for her leadership at Highmark. I know David is certainly a strong supporter of hiring people with disabilities, but you also need those executives, and the CEO position is so critical. So Karen, thank you for being a leader and a role model in your support and leadership on hiring people with disabilities in the community. We're just so proud of Highmark here. In Pennsylvania, and thank you for your commitment.

Well, thank you, Perry. Thank you for your kind words. I'm sure Joyce Bender talks more about it here today, but it is an easy thing to do. It makes our business stronger and, you know, more valuable to our customers.

Yeah, and so true. And Perry, it's great. How many years now, Perry? 5 years you've been my newscaster, right?

I have 5 wonderful years. I am glad to be a part of your show, Joyce.

Well, I am thrilled to have you. And just so you know, Gerald told me this morning, he said, "I was on a call. I was on a call for AAPD Rev Up, and guess what? The best newscaster in America was there." I said, "Oh, that would be Perry." That's so funny. Yes. Well, Perry, what news do you have for us today?

Joyce, great news. Congress is getting ready to reintroduce a bill called the READI Act. That stands for Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion for Disasters. So it's the READY Act. The main sponsor of this bill, Joyce, is our own Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey.

Oh, he is so awesome.

Right? He always does the right thing, the next right thing. Senator Casey is looking for our help, our community's help and support for this very important legislation. I want to say first what this bill would do and then how you can help. The bill would ensure there is strong disability and older adult voices throughout the preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation of disasters. It would include universal design and visibility standards, as well as reasonable modifications during and after disasters. It creates a grant program to pilot strategies for greater inclusion of people with disabilities and older adults into emergency preparedness. It makes the Department of Justice examine how the civil rights of people with disabilities and older adults may not be upheld across the country during disasters. And it really highlights the role that the Centers of Independent Living, play when there is a local disaster for preparedness, response, and recovery. So advocacy matters. Senator Casey is looking for all of us to reach out to our legislators and ask them to co-sponsor this very important bill on emergency preparedness before the introduction. If you need something easier, there's a petition that you can sign to show your support How do you do this? Head over to disabilityrightsPA.org. That's disabilityrightsPA.org. Click on today's advocacy matters segment to learn more about the bill and find a link to ready.com. There you can find that petition to show your support and a link to send a message to your member of Congress. Joyce Bender, it's just that easy. Uh, so go on over to disabilityrightsPA.org. Let's help Senator Casey get more co-sponsors on this legislation before he introduces it next week.

Oh, and that is so great. That is so great. That is, uh, oh, wonderful, wonderful. Yes, everyone get behind that. Go to disabilityrightsPA.org. Go to Advocacy Matters page. We've got to get behind him. He's always there for us, for people with disabilities. He is our voice all the time. Isn't he, Perry? Isn't he like the person we go to? Yes. So, um, okay, well, thanks, Perry. We will look forward to talking to you next week, but also hearing how this moves along.

Sure.

Thank you, Joyce.

Okay, bye-bye. I'll tell you what, Karen, uh, Senator Casey, when there's a disability issue, everyone of all of our groups like AAPD or Bazelon or whatever the national group is, the first person they go to is Senator Casey. It used to be, before he passed away, Senator Edward Kennedy. Then, then it would be Senator Harkin, but he has retired, so Senator Casey, you know, sort of took up that, that role.

That's great. That's great.

Yeah. Well, Karen, before we talk about hiring people with disabilities, I wanted to talk for a moment about COVID Now I know, because there isn't anyone you could ever say, would you ever imagine something like that? And the answer is no. How could we? It was like a biblical plague. I mean, it was like, like when I was seeing it unfold, it was, oh my God, I could never envision something like that would happen. And you know, there it is. It took 1 million lives. Just in the United States alone. But you with Allegheny Health Network, you managed this horrific, uh, plague with helping and saving lives of people at the hospitals. How, how did you, how did you do that when it was such, when it had never happened before? This is not like something you had practice with. I mean, how did you do that?

Yeah, I mean, as you can imagine, you know, that was a tough time for all businesses to navigate, but especially, you know, when, when you own a health system, you know, and you have hospitals and doctors and nurses that are caring for these people. We went into kind of a All hands on deck effort, of course, across all of Allegheny Health Network and across all of Highmark Health. You know, we were having daily standup meetings. I can remember at the time we had people in United Concordia Dental, which is our dental insurance company, that were working to help secure some of the supply items that were needed, you know. The dental insurance business was working on supplies needed for the hospitals. So we, you know, we were all hands on deck, rallied all of our troops. Of course, the first priority was keeping our caregivers and our patients safe. So we made a lot of changes around visitation and masking at the hospitals. We, you know, needed to postpone a lot of surgeries so that we had the capacity that was going to be necessary necessary to care for the COVID patients. We shifted our workforce around so that, you know, we had the right number of people in the hospitals that were going to be needed. We transitioned a lot of our, you know, non-COVID business to video visits and virtual medicine, and so that people could still access care even though they weren't able to access it in the traditional way. And then, of course, you'll remember, Joyce Bender, we had all the supply chain shortages, you know, Initially it was N95 masks. Eventually it was testing. And as I said earlier, we, you know, were using all parts of the enterprise and relationships that we had, you know, not only in this region but throughout the country to develop innovative solutions to some of those things. You know, we worked with MSA, which, you know, Mine Safety Appliances here. In Western Pennsylvania on P100 masks so that our caregivers were protected to the fullest degree that we could protect them at the time, given what we didn't know about COVID And so, you know, it was— although, and especially for the doctors and the nurses, it was exhausting. There were parts of it, there were days where it was energizing because you saw people coming to the table with solutions that we would not have otherwise thought about. And then add to that the level of engagement that we had from community organizations, community partners of ours, other stakeholders, and it, you know, gave you a reason to have some energy. And that really took hold once we started vaccinating people. You know, we went into just mass vaccination efforts in regular dialogue with the state multiple times a day around how many doses of the vaccine could we get, how were we going to get those dosages distributed and into arms as quickly as we could. And, you know, we started doing vaccination clinics at big venues such as PNC Park, which, you know, for those not in Pittsburgh, that's a baseball stadium where the Pittsburgh Pirates play, Dick's Sporting Goods headquarters, you know, a local sporting goods enterprise, the convention center here in Pittsburgh. And, you know, our doctors and nurses, of course, led the way to, you know, dole out thousands and thousands of doses of the vaccine with us manning those vaccination sites with volunteers that we had from the rest of Highmark Health. Non-clinical people couldn't, of course, offer a shot, but they could work the parking lot to help people get in and out of their cars, to help push wheelchairs when people needed help, to help work the lines. And remember, after you would get one of those shots, you had to sit and wait for 15 minutes or a half hour.. And, you know, we had volunteers kind of working that waiting area to make sure that people, you know, seemed to be doing okay after their shot. And so through all of that, we ultimately administered more than 500,000 COVID vaccine doses. And so, you know, that work is not being done today, of course, at the same level of intensity that was required back then, but our clinicians are still absolutely on the front line trying to work through implications patients from long-haul COVID and patients that we're seeing that, you know, are having that complication. You know, the data as I understand it is that up to 30% of people who get COVID are reporting some degree of long COVID symptoms that last weeks or months after the initial infection. And so it's something that we continue to learn about and think about solutions related to. It's unbelievable that it's been 3 years. You know, like you said, at the beginning of all of this, I remember, you know, as we were thinking about sending our non-clinical people to work from home rather than having them in the offices, I remember thinking as we were sending them home, "Oh, this will be 2 or 3 weeks, and, you know, we'll get through this." And wow, you know, that was not the case at all. It's just been the most amazing thing to have kind of gone through and reflect back on. And I'm just very proud of how our organization performed in that time, because they were challenging times. And our people operated amazingly well in that time of crisis. And we brought all the resources from that $26 billion enterprise that has different different business units to it, to the table to bring everybody's thought and creativity into the mix to solve some of the problems. And I'm very proud of how our folks did through that.

Highmark was also very protective of their employees. I remember you were one of the first. I remember, you know, when you would not have people come back to work. Although, like you, yeah, I remember saying it was March 16th. I said to my employees, you know what, with all this going on, how about like stay home for a couple weeks? Never did any of us think this would happen, but thank God here we all are. And thanks to people like you and your hospitals, people's lives were saved. And you know, what greater thing is that than knowing you were part of something to save lives? So thank you for everything that your company and you, you know, and David and everyone did to help us through that. But that brings me to the employment of people with disabilities. I want to tell everyone that was the 30th year of the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At Highmark, Okay, uh, David told me we're going to hire 30 people from you to celebrate the 30th anniversary.

Mm-hmm.

They—

yeah, and I think we've done it every year since, Joyce. We keep raising the bar for '31, '32, and now '33.

Yes, every year you have done that, and every year, Karen, you have been so supportive. I mean, for all of you listening, I know this show will be replayed a lot, but I just want to say that there are those that talk about it, there are those that do it, and where the rubber meets the road is jobs. That's where the rubber meets the road. So, Karen, uh, tell me, you have embraced this, um, you specifically, as I said earlier, have frequently asked me Just the other day I said, well, Karen, what are we going to do with the 3333? Oh, well, we're going to hit it. I mean, that's just how Karen is. But tell me, Karen, what is your opinion about why you, David, and predecessors have been so committed to this hiring people with disabilities?

Yeah, I think it's two things, Joyce. Um, you know, I talked earlier about the mission of the company, the culture of the company, the community orientation that we have. And so I think part of it is it's just the right thing to do. You know, when we think about wanting everybody that sits within the community to have an opportunity to participate and, you know, be a part of what we're doing to serve people. And then I think the second thing is it makes our business better. You know, we're serving 7 million health insurance members, you know, that ultimately sit throughout the U.S. We're serving, you know, 22 million other insurance members, whether they be through our dental program or through our stop-loss reinsurance, also sitting throughout the nation. Those 29 million people come in all ways, shapes, forms, sizes, race, ethnicity, you know, you name it, right? And so we are better as a company when we have those different points of view, different life experiences, different capabilities at the table to help us with our thinking and our decision-making. And so it makes us better as a business as well. So, for me at least, it comes down to those two items.

Well, and I will say that you haven't just hired people, Karen, you have promoted people. So, my greatest day, and it's happened more than one time, is when someone calls our office, a former employee that is a Highmark employee, and says, Joyce, we have an opening. Oh, that is just so great to see people. It's not just a job, but a career. And with that, we're going to go to our quick What's Going On at Bender break. So Gerald, what's going on at Bender?

Hi Joyce, thanks again for having me on to talk. And before that, I just have to thank you, Karen, for all the work you do to support us. You know, I've worked for Joyce for 16 years and before that My dad is blind, was the first person with a disability Joyce ever placed, and that was at Highmark. And I grew up with him being the primary bread earner for my family at a time when that was impossible odds to get that type of opportunity that gave him the ability to do that for us. And as a person with disabilities myself, working in our recruitment team, placing people in roles, leading those efforts, I know how much you and Highmark are behind behind us and behind people with disabilities and for the right reasons. And so I just want to thank you for that support.

Well, thank you. Thank you. I remember your dad walking the halls here.

I was going to say, you're forgetting that Karen's been there for a long time.

Yes.

Yep. So, Gerald, what news do you have for us?

Well, this is for our listeners, and that's I'm sorry, this is for our listeners. This is the news of opportunity. There are so many companies coming forward to work with us this year as we're progressing hiring of people with disabilities. There's a massive amount of opportunity in IT right now here at Bender, all across the United States with different corporations. So I wanted to highlight that for our listeners, anyone out there looking for a job in information technology. We have positions for project managers, for developers, for help desk associates, for business analysts, for business folks that are supporting teams in IT roles, for jobs in Salesforce and all different types of areas. So if you are looking for a career in IT or you know a person with a disability is looking for a job or a better opportunity, that's looking for a company that would embrace them like a Highmark, we have lots of companies we're working with hiring right now. So make sure you get those people in touch with me here at Bender. All you have to do is go to benderconsult.com/jobs to find our openings and apply. That's benderconsult.com/jobs.

Thank you, Gerald. Thank you so much. And I always love when we're telling people there's hope and opportunity. So thank you very much. Thanks for calling in.

Thank you, Joyce. And thank you, Karen.

Take care, Gerald.

I just want to say, I hope you notice that folks listening across the United States, we work with companies across the United States. So whether it's with a defense contractor in DC or a manufacturing company. Just today we talked to a, uh, multi-billion-dollar company in Houston, Texas that works in the area of air conditioning, uh, and heat, and they have so many openings, high-level openings in their corporate office. So tell someone, tell people, because you know it's all about jobs. It's all about jobs. Well, Karen, like, I wanted to ask you a few other questions, but one of them is in reference to you. You are the sponsor for supplier diversity, and you have included people with disabilities, which says so much about you. But wouldn't you agree that it's amazing? How is it possible that like all the leaders in the executive leadership team are people that are also supportive of this? I mean, that's unusual that at a company you would have so many people at the top that all embrace their partnership with Bender and hiring people with disabilities. And yet 70% of people with disabilities are not counted in the workforce. And the reason Highmark is known all the way to the White House is good and bad. Of course, if you're known, it's always good. But how it's bad is why aren't there more? And there aren't. Highmark is my saying that I told you I'm going to tell Cindy Donahoe tomorrow. She can have this saying. Highmark sets the high mark for other companies to follow. But you do. You are Unusual, but you know, this starts with Bill Lowry, then it goes to John Brouse, then Ken Maloney, then Bill Winklmurder, and now David Holmberg, and then it will be you. So, Aaron, why do you think that is? Why do you think— I know, how many companies are there where everyone is like that at the top? What do you think about that?

Yeah, well, I think it's because of the success of the relationship that we've had, Joyce. And, you know, you said it right, Bill Lowry was the first one to make that decision over 25 years ago. And we've had our partnership with Bender Consulting since then through multiple CEOs, multiple changes, many, many, many changes, right, in the various leadership seats within Highmark Health. But it continues to be a focus area of ours, and we continue to do work in this area because it is good for our business. It has benefits associated with it, and we see it working well within the work that we do on behalf of our customers. So I think I think, you know, like anything else, when you see something that's working and it's good, you continue it, you know. And so I think that's why it's continued through, you know, a lot of different leaders over those 25 years and is, you know, at least as prominent today as it was back then.

Well, it is. And I guess that sort of fits in with why you stayed at Highmark, though. Remember you said about the culture?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely it does. And, you know, I think we, you know, listen, David Holmberg will say all the time, we don't do everything right every day. You know, we know that we could be better, but each day we try to do better. And I think that's just part of the culture, part of the DNA of the company. And I, you know, it, bringing different points of view to the table. We have, you know, business resource groups that allow our employees to engage on different topics and to bring different points of view to the table to think about different, you know, business problems. We've got 2,000 employees that are engaging through these business resource groups to think about, you know, things like employees with disabilities and how they're represented here at the company. We've, you know, been recognized for the— recently recognized for the 8th consecutive year as the best place to work for individuals with disabilities. And, you know, that comes because we promote and encourage a level of dialogue about it that allows us to think about about, you know, where and how do we make that work even better in the organization year after year. And so, you know, we on the backend see recognition of it through things like that Best Place to Work designation, but it's a result of a lot of continual work to, you know, not only meet the standards, but to really try to drive the best practice standards for disability inclusion, whether that's workforce education, whether that's a centralized accommodation process, the recruiting work that we do and having a strong recruiting pipeline. You know, Gerald just talked about those IT roles. I, I can just about guarantee you that some of those IT roles that you're recruiting for at Bender are IT roles here at Highmark, you know, because it is an area where we always need help. It's an area where we have had a particular focus on engaging people with disabilities because we've seen it work really, really well. You know, and so we just keep at it every day, and that will continue to be the case.

Well, I can't thank you enough. And Karen, thank you so much for being with us today. I'll say this, look out. Karen and I on our way one of these days to the White House so that we can get everyone understanding you can hire people with disabilities and you should do that. Karen, thank you for being with us.

Thank you, Joyce. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to be here today, you know, talking— A, talking with you because it's always great to talk with you. B, representing Highmark on this show that I know has just incredible reach. And, you know, on behalf of everybody at Highmark Health, I want to thank you for the business partnership because, you know, you are just a tireless advocate, and we are better as a company because you push us to be better. You, you know, you stick with us, and, you know, you keep encouraging us and talking to David, myself, and the other leaders here to make us better, and we appreciate that. So thank you very much for your partnership.

And we end every show with a quote, and a quote today is: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has, said Margaret Mead. And that is so true, even of what happened with Highmark. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice. Where Disability Matters at voiceamerica.com. In Mary Brocker's words, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific Time and 2 PM Eastern Time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on the Voice of America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.