WellPoint Ranks No. 36 on The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® List

INDIANAPOLIS, March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is ranked No. 36 on The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® list released last week.

The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® is the leading assessment of strategic diversity management leadership. A total of 535 companies participated this year, up 19 percent from last year.

"Our commitment to diversity and inclusion truly is a competitive advantage and one important way we drive superior health care value," said Angela Braly, chair, president and CEO of WellPoint. "The diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences of our associates foster the innovative solutions that best meet the needs of our customers, doctors and hospitals, and our communities."

According to Luke Visconti, DiversityInc CEO, "A strong focus has been to increase the number of people from traditionally underrepresented groups in its leadership ranks through talent development and mentoring. In recent years, WellPoint has introduced a number of diversity initiatives to encourage more diverse hiring and recruitment strategies, especially with women and people with disabilities."

Linda Jimenez, chief diversity officer and staff VP - diversity and inclusion, pointed to the success of WellPoint's executive excellence and succession planning programs. "At WellPoint, we know that talent shines brightest in a collaborative environment. Our inclusive culture encourages associates to bring ideas and passion to their job and work together to develop products and services that improve the lives of our members and the health of our communities."

WellPoint will be featured all year on DiversityInc.com, DiversityIncBestPractices.com and in DiversityInc magazine for being listed on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

To qualify for The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, participating companies must have more than 1,000 employees and must fill out a detailed questionnaire based completely on empirical questions on CEO commitment, human capital, internal and external communications, and supplier diversity. The list, now in its 11th year, is editorially driven and completely based on metrics. Companies doing business with DiversityInc receive no advantage. "Our metrics-driven, objective editorial process enables us to measure a company's cultural ability to relate to employees, customers, community and suppliers," said Visconti. "There is a direct correlation between best practices in diversity management and human-capital results, but we feel our list is really about measuring a company's cultural ability to relate to a rapidly developing marketplace—not only in composition, but in its ability to immediately reward companies that have demonstrated respect."

DiversityInc was founded in 1998 and is a metrics-based source of information on diversity management data, trends and best practices. To see the full ranking of The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity as well as more information on the methodology, visit www.DiversityInc.com/top50.

About WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint works to simplify the connection between Health, Care and Value. We help to improve the health of our communities, deliver better care to members, and provide greater value to our customers and shareholders. WellPoint is the nation's largest health benefits company in terms of medical enrollment, with more than 33 million members in its affiliated health plans, and a total of more than 69 million individuals served through all subsidiaries. As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in the New York service areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.

SOURCE WellPoint, Inc.