Joy Fitzgerald, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer for UnitedHealth Group, shares her perspective on the evolution of DE&I and what it means to UnitedHealth Group.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd exposed long-standing equity issues in health care. Patients of all races, genders and religions sought more equitable care while health care workers asked for more inclusiveness and respect in the workplace.
In the meantime, a business case for health equity began to emerge. According to one study, the U.S. economic output would increase by $2.7 trillion annually if race-based disparities within the health care system were addressed. Health care leaders have taken notice of the need to improve health equity. But it's an enormous challenge and prioritizing measures is no easy task.
So how much has changed regarding health equity in the last 18 months? Here to explain what's happening is Joy Fitzgerald, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer with UnitedHealth Group.
SPEAKERS
Joy Fitzgerald, Ira Apfel
Ira Apfel00:05
Hello and welcome to UnitedHealth Group’s Weekly Dose Podcast where we’ll get you up to speed on the latest trends shaping the future of health care. And don't forget the Weekly Dose is now on Apple Podcast and Spotify, so please subscribe.
Ira Apfel00:20
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and protest following the death of George Floyd exposed long standing equity issues in health care. Patients of all races, gender and religions sought more equitable care. Health care workers ask for more inclusiveness and respect in the workplace. And all this transpired while government officials the media and the public watched an interest. In the meantime, a business case for Health Equity began to emerge. According to one study, the US economic output would increase by $2.7 trillion annually. If race-based disparities within the health care system beyond were addressed. The same study by the Kellogg Foundation estimates that eliminating health disparities by the year 2050 would reduce the need for more than $150 billion in medical care. health care leaders have taken notice of the need to improve health equity. But it's an enormous challenge. And prioritizing measures is no easy task. As we approach 2022, how much has changed then, and health equity in the last 18 months? Here to explain what's happening and what UnitedHealth Group is doing is Joy Fitzgerald. She's the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer with UnitedHealth Group choices. Joy, welcome to the podcast.
Joy Fitzgerald01:41
Thank you. It's a delight to be here.
Ira Apfel01:45
I'll start off though, with our conversation here about diversity, equity inclusion with kind of a big picture question. How has Dee and I changed across fortune 100 companies in the last five years, would you say,
Joy Fitzgerald01:59
We've certainly seen a shift and, in some degrees, and evolution and also a transformation, specifically over the last couple of years. If you think back to maybe 20 years ago, diversity really was more around kind of the right thing to do or the philanthropic thing to do. And then it kind of moved a little bit to inclusion around how people experience a work environment or workplace. In the last couple of years, with the death and murder of George Floyd, we've now seen companies evolve more to equity, having a footprint around social impact, but also understanding the environment externally, what that means for an organization and its members inside of a company. So we've certainly seen that evolution now to diversity, inclusion, but now also equity.
Ira Apfel02:58
You touched on the murder of George Floyd, which actually brings me to the next question, which is, how did the murder of George Floyd, change things for a company operating in Minnesota and add your role as a diversity, equity and inclusion officer?
Joy Fitzgerald03:13
Well, it was certainly a tragic and unfortunate event. I can tell you, as someone who's been doing this work for quite a while and this is my third time in this role. I've never seen the awakening of a movement around a topic that many individuals have been working to try to enlighten, educate, in even ignite some sense of urgency around the issues that many individuals still face. That moment took place at a time in which most of us were home was a pandemic, we were still enough, quiet enough and present enough to really see a murder play out live on TV, right in our homes, our living spaces. And the fact that this happened in the state in the city of our headquarters was also an opportunity for us to revisit and think about what role we can play as an organization, right in our headquarters home site. What can we do to better educate, create more advocacy, but also be a leader in helping to create more equity not only inside of our organizations, but also in the communities in which we serve.
Ira Apfel04:48
You joined UnitedHealth Group in 2021 months after the George Floyd tragedy. I'm curious what prompted that decision?
Joy Fitzgerald04:57
You know, my story around working in health care is one that's very personal for me. I lost my sister, about seven and a half years ago. And it created an opportunity for me to rethink about where I wanted to spend my time, my efforts and my energy. Going through the pandemic, also was another moment for me to reflect and think about the work that I'm doing. United Health Group presented such a wonderful opportunity not only to do the work I was doing at the company that I was in, but to do it on such a much broader scale, thinking about the core mission of this company, to make health care work for everyone. That mission is really playing out in front of us as we think about COVID 19, the tragedies that we're seeing all across the globe, if I can be part of an organization that has a mission, to go after some of these tough challenges as it relates to health equity. This is the role that I absolutely wanted to say yes to.
Ira Apfel06:09
And when you arrived, what were your thoughts about UnitedHealth Group, and its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the time.
Joy Fitzgerald06:17
I was so impressed, and excited and energized, just by the leadership and the people in every new meeting an opportunity to meet individuals. It was just this consistent theme around people wanting to do more, do more faster as it relates to this work, but also seeking to understand what are some of those best practices? How can they lead and create transformative change, not only inside of our company, but also in the places then areas in which we live, but also for our patients? And that level of commitment from the highest level of our organization all the way down to our team members. To me, that is the recipe for success. And it's one that has just ignited me to think about how I can help be part of the change this organization definitely wants to lead.
Ira Apfel07:26
When you arrived at UnitedHealth Group, you were coming from the pharmaceutical industry. And I'm curious, what was your perception of diversity, equity inclusion in the health care industry in general. And why is di particularly important in the health care industry.
Joy Fitzgerald07:42
Our hope and our goal as we're living is that we can have a healthy life, and one in which we can thrive. And health care is the center of everyone's nucleus, around how we will engage in this beautiful thing called life. And as we think about that, what's one of the first challenges we see around diversity, equity and inclusion, it sits at the heart of health care, our experiences, how culture intersects, how advocacy or lack of advocacy can play out in one receiving care and one not receiving care, economics, education, information, all of those things are at the foundation of how we will experience the health care system. So working in the pharma world, I get to see even how culture plays out in individuals having trust in whether they would take a medication or not. So it is certainly my goal, but also my desire in wish that the work that we are doing will make a real impact. So that everyone is we get to engage in this beautiful thing called life, that we receive the best health care so that we can live out our best dreams, missions and visions.
Ira Apfel09:19
What do you think the health care industry struggle with most? From a D and AI perspective?
Joy Fitzgerald09:26
I think a couple of things as we think from the patient perspective, I think we struggle with trust, but also education. You know, history has taught us real reasons why individuals do not trust the health care system. Also think there is this misinformation, and lack of education on the intent of the health care system. So people walk into thinking there are all kinds of myths and stereotypes In just bad data around the intent of individuals who work in the health care system as relates to the patient, so I think the education and trust piece is a huge issue. On the other side, when you think of the business side, I think we still are trying to figure out how to overcome some of the barriers that exist. I think there is a rich and overwhelming opportunity and challenge for us to really understand how culture, different dimensions of difference play out in pet health. And given that we still do not have equity in representation at the highest levels of health care organizations. It's a missed opportunity to really bring those insights in those life and lived experiences to the work that we do, where it can really make a difference.
Ira Apfel11:07
I'm going to ask you kind of a larger question about DNI and health equity. So I guess the first part of the question is, what is the connection between diversity, equity inclusion and health equity? And in terms of health equity, United Health Group is particularly focused on four areas access to care, health, workforce diversity, social determinants and maternal health. Why those four? So that's a big question. I know. And if you want to if you want to break it down into two parts, we can but I thought they were kind of like two things that really should be kind of grouped together.
Joy Fitzgerald11:40
Yeah, well, you know, health equity is achieved when every person, regardless of race, where they live, the life circumstances, age, religion, has the opportunity to live their healthiest life. But today, we know there are still far too many barriers to having good health. And as a company, we've determined that these are the four areas that we believe can have the greatest opportunity to contribute to those barriers, we know that we are focusing on building a diverse health workforce that represents the communities we serve, who can bring those unique perspectives and voices in cultural competency to foster care, that's really going to help work in comfort our patients. And we want to have a health care environment that is inclusive, to where people can come to their physicians, their clinicians, and feel free of judgment. Realize that people will talk and give them information in the language, or at the educational levels in which they can understand and feel psychologically safe to ask questions. So this work is important to us. And as I would say, equity resides in everything we do. It's really about making sure that we are providing the unique solutions so that everyone will have a chance to thrive in our health care system.
Ira Apfel13:25
Are there areas where the industry is doing well or has improved in the past 18 months. One of the things
Joy Fitzgerald13:33
that I'm very pleased to see over the last 18 months is that companies abroad, are now thinking about the intersection of diversity and health care in a more explicit and intentional way. Companies are now looking at data and sharing data to help educate and inform the workforce, but also the broader population. And we make know that data provides factual insights that can help people make better decisions. I'm very pleased to see that organizations are now partnering with community organizations in a different way, ways in which they're bringing them to the table and asking them to be part and to co create solutions for some of these demographics that we know still have real challenges as it relates to mortality and morbidity.
Ira Apfel14:43
What will you know health group focus its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on in 2022?
Joy Fitzgerald14:50
But that's a very exciting agenda and I'm very delighted to talk about that. We have a number of efforts that we are working on right now but I'd like to share just three key priorities. The first one is really focused around increasing the diversity of our workforce, especially among our senior levels of our organization. Second, we're engaging in work to ensure that we understand the lived experiences of our employees, particularly where we see differences. We know that we have an opportunity to learn from them, and the ways in which we can better support their work experience and leverage those insights as well to help us with our patients. And third, we are going to be providing more education to our leaders and our team members on how to create but also contribute to an even more inclusive environment when we believe that this is a critical piece, as we continuously seek to understand and improve our impact, but also our outcomes for our patients.
Ira Apfel16:02
joyful. Cheryl, thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
Joy Fitzgerald16:07
It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
Ira Apfel16:11
That's it for this episode of UnitedHealth group's weekly dose podcast. Thank you for listening and have a great rest of your week.