Humana recently donated $15 million to Thomas Jefferson University to support the advancement of health equity and community health in the population Jefferson serves.

Working with community partners across the country to improve health outcomes for disenfranchised and underserved populations, the Humana Insights for Action Fund offered a major injection into Jefferson's Collaborative for Health Equity.

Initially, $3 million will be allocated to implement data analysis and advance research to scale up targeted interventions, reduce health disparities, and improve access to care for patients, aligning with broader equity efforts in human health.

J. Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH, chief health equity officer and senior vice president at Humana, said:

Our focus at Humana is influencing and enabling an equitable healthcare ecosystem so that every person has a fair, just and dignified opportunity to reach their full health potential.

Get to know: The Humana Insights for Action Fund

Humana noted that Philadelphia, like other U.S. cities, has lower health outcomes and public-private partnerships are working to improve lives.

Using the remaining $12 million, Humana will establish three priority positions at TJU, each focused on improving population health and promoting health equity:

1. Humana Deanship in the College of Population Health
2. Humana Professorship of Community Health and Equity
3. Humana Chief Community Health and Equity Officer

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“We are honored to partner with Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health to further the important health equity efforts of this organization. This collaboration demonstrates our shared commitment to advancing community health and health equity and co-creating solutions to address challenges for populations that have historically been marginalized and underserved in healthcare,” added Olayiwola.

The donation also builds on Humana's long-standing commitment to advancing health equity to improve the health of its members, patients, and communities by helping to remove structural barriers, improve access to high-quality care, and address social needs that influence health.

“Advancing health equity is core to our mission at Jefferson and we look forward to implementing the Humana Insights for Action Fund to enhance our efforts to address health disparities. This incredible gift will not only bolster the Jefferson College of Population Health, which was established in 2008 as the country’s first college of population health, but will advance health-equity projects and programming across our entire health system,” said Joseph G. Cacchione, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Jefferson.