Elevance Health Ranks #3 in The Health Insurer AI Audit

Part of the The Health Insurer AI Audit index.

Elevance Health ranks #3 in The Health Insurer AI Audit with an AI Disclosure Score of 62 out of 100, earning a C+ grade. The audit, conducted by Everything-PR, evaluates the eight largest U.S. health insurers by enrolled membership on the transparency of their public disclosures around artificial intelligence and algorithmic decision-making. Elevance Health sits behind Kaiser Permanente (76) at #1 and Health Care Service Corporation (68) at #2, and ahead of Humana (58) at #4.

What The Health Insurer AI Audit Measures

The Health Insurer AI Audit scores insurers on six dimensions: 10-K and Annual Report AI Disclosure, Member-Facing AI Disclosure, Prior Authorization AI Transparency, Claims AI Disclosure, Algorithm Audit and Third-Party Validation, and Member Appeal Process AI Disclosure. The audit reviewed SEC 10-K filings, annual reports, member benefit documents, member portal disclosures, Explanation of Benefits (EOB) language, public regulatory filings, prior authorization criteria documents, and statements to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and CMS during 2024 to 2026 rulemaking cycles. Higher scores reflect more transparent public disclosure rather than more sophisticated AI use.

Why Elevance Health Ranks #3

Elevance Health's score of 62 reflects measurable improvement in public disclosure following the company's rebrand from Anthem to Elevance. According to the index, recent filings increasingly reference AI and algorithmic support systems, with the Carelon division highlighted as the primary AI center for the organization.

That centralization works both for and against Elevance Health's disclosure profile. The index notes that consolidating AI narratives under Carelon creates stronger disclosure consistency, but it also limits transparency around how AI functions across the broader insurance operation. Readers of Elevance Health's filings get a clearer picture of what Carelon does than of how algorithmic systems operate elsewhere inside the company.

Investor-facing communication improved more rapidly than member-facing transparency, according to the index. That gap is part of a broader industry pattern the audit identifies: across the sector, insurers consistently disclose more information regarding AI usage to investors than to members, creating a structural disconnect between investor-facing and member-facing transparency. Elevance Health's profile sits within that pattern rather than against it.

A continuing challenge flagged in the index is Elevance Health's use of broad terminology such as "clinical criteria" without explicit explanation of algorithmic involvement. Language of that kind appears in filings and member-facing documents without resolving, for the reader, whether and how an algorithm shaped a coverage decision.

How Carelon Shapes Elevance Health's Disclosure

The Carelon division functions as the public face of Elevance Health's AI activity in recent filings. By housing AI narratives there, Elevance Health produces a consistent story for investors and regulators about where artificial intelligence sits inside the organization. The index credits that consistency while also flagging the trade-off: AI work that does not run through Carelon receives less disclosure attention, and member-facing materials lag the investor-facing ones in describing algorithmic involvement.

Elevance Health's own corporate communications echo the digital-first framing. Ratnakar Lavu, Chief Digital Information Officer, Elevance Health, has stated: "As a digital-first company, we use data, technology, and artificial intelligence, where appropriate, to generate holistic and actionable insights, and to personalize the consumer experience and help achieve better health outcomes. We aim to deliver new tools and capabilities that redefine how we help people manage their health journey."

Where Elevance Health Sits in the Broader Industry Story

Two cross-brand patterns identified in The Health Insurer AI Audit help frame Elevance Health's #3 position.

First, disclosure improvements have followed legal pressure more consistently than regulatory action; the insurers showing the largest improvement in public AI transparency, particularly UnitedHealth and Cigna, expanded disclosure primarily after litigation activity rather than in response to formal regulatory requirements. Elevance Health's improvement narrative is anchored differently, in the post-rebrand reset of its corporate identity and filings.

Second, the audit finds that integrated payer-provider models disclose more because their structure supports it, with Kaiser Permanente cited as the illustrative case at #1. Elevance Health, scoring 62, sits in the middle band of the audit: well clear of Centene Corporation (38) at #8, The Cigna Group (44) at #7, CVS Health (Aetna) (48) at #6, and UnitedHealth Group (54) at #5, but separated from the top two by structural and behavioral factors the index identifies.

Across all evaluated dimensions, disclosure surrounding member appeals and denial processes showed the weakest performance throughout the industry, representing the largest industry gap. That dimension is one of the six on which every insurer in the audit, Elevance Health included, was measured.

What the Score Signals Going Forward

Elevance Health's C+ grade and #3 rank position the company as a mid-band improver in AI disclosure: better than most of the publicly traded peer set, behind the integrated and less conventionally structured organizations at the top. The next refresh will test whether Carelon-centered disclosure expands to cover AI use across the broader insurance operation, and whether member-facing transparency catches up with the investor-facing improvements the index has already recorded.

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