Elevance Health is the company formerly known as Anthem. It renamed itself on June 28, 2022, and the stock ticker moved from ANTM to ELV. If you still think of it as Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, you're thinking of the right company. It covers roughly 45 million members and pulled in about $197.6 billion in revenue in 2025, which makes it one of the largest health insurers in the country by enrollment.
A company that size buys a lot. Technology, staffing, marketing, facilities, clinical services, print, logistics, professional services. In 2024 it reported working with more than 1,000 diverse suppliers and spending over $1.2 billion with them. That is the number worth anchoring on, because it tells you the spend is real and the door is open to businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, people with disabilities, and people who identify as LGBTQIA+.
Registration is the easy part. You can finish it in an afternoon. Getting selected for an actual contract is where the work lives, and most of that work happens before you ever fill out a form. Here's the order to do it in.
What Elevance buys, and who has a shotElevance Health's supplier program covers small businesses, HUBZone-certified firms, and businesses majority-owned by ethnic minorities, women, veterans, service-disabled veterans, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ owners. That's a wide funnel. If your business fits one of those categories and you sell something a national health insurer plausibly buys, you qualify to register.
The categories matter because Elevance tracks diverse spend in two tiers. Tier 1 is what it pays you directly. Tier 2 is the diverse spend its prime suppliers report through their own subcontracting. In 2022, Elevance reported about $990 million in Tier 1 direct diverse and small business spend inside a larger total. The practical takeaway: even if you're too small to land a direct Tier 1 contract today, you can get on the radar of the large primes that already work with Elevance and report Tier 2 spend. Both lanes are real.
One note on language. Elevance's older annual reports called this its "supplier diversity" program. The current suppliers page leans on "supplier development" framing. The 2025-2026 stretch saw a lot of corporations relabel these programs, and Elevance's wording reflects that. The spend categories and the registration path are still in place. Verify the exact program name on the live page before you cite it in an email, because the label has been moving.
Step 1: Get your certifications in order firstDo this before you touch the registration form. Corporate buyers want third-party certification, not your word that you're a minority-owned firm. The certification that carries weight depends on which category you fall into:
- Minority-owned: NMSDC certification (MBE), issued through your regional affiliate council.
- Women-owned: WBENC certification (WBE), the standard most Fortune 500 buyers recognize.
- LGBTQ-owned: NGLCC certification (LGBTBE).
- Disability-owned: Disability:IN certification (DOBE).
- Veteran-owned: NaVOBA certification (VBE/SDVBE), or a federal veteran verification if you also sell to the government.
- Small or HUBZone: SBA registration and HUBZone certification, depending on your fit.
You can register with Elevance without one of these in hand, but a certified profile reads as a serious vendor and an uncertified one reads as a maybe. If you don't yet hold the right certification, that's the first thing to fix. CertifyAll handles the filing across the agencies and councils once, so you're not running each application separately.
Step 2: Register through SAP AribaElevance Health runs its supplier registration through SAP Ariba, the same procurement network many large enterprises use. The registration portal is at elevancehealth.supplier.ariba.com/register.
The flow looks like this:
- Create a free Ariba Commerce Cloud account, or sign in if you already have one from selling to another large company. Lots of suppliers already have an Ariba account and don't realize it.
- Enter your company information: legal name, address, contacts, and what you sell.
- Activate your account through the email Ariba sends you.
- Answer Elevance's additional questions. This is where your diversity classification, certifications, capabilities, and alignment with Elevance's values come in. Fill these out completely. A thin profile gets passed over.
- Your profile lands in Elevance's supplier database, where its sourcing team can find you when a relevant opportunity comes up.
Registration does not mean a contract. Elevance states plainly that completing registration "does not imply a contract or intent to purchase." It puts you in the pool. Questions about the process go to SupplierEnablement@ElevanceHealth.com.
Step 3: Make your profile findableA database listing only works if a sourcing manager can match you to a need. That means your Ariba profile has to be specific. Generic descriptions like "consulting services" or "IT solutions" disappear in a search. Name the exact categories you serve, the NAICS codes that fit, the certifications you hold, and any healthcare or payer experience you bring.
If you've done work for another health plan, a hospital system, a pharmacy benefit manager, or a state Medicaid program, say so. Elevance is a healthcare company. A supplier who already understands HIPAA, claims, member communications, or clinical operations is easier to trust than one learning the industry on Elevance's dime.
Step 4: Don't wait by the inboxRegistering and then waiting is how most suppliers stall out. The companies that win corporate contracts work the relationship. A few moves that actually help:
- Show up where Elevance's supplier team shows up. National council events from NMSDC, WBENC, NGLCC, Disability:IN, and NaVOBA are where corporate supplier development teams scout. Healthcare-specific matchmaker events are even better.
- Target the primes, not just Elevance. The large suppliers already under contract report Tier 2 diverse spend. Subcontracting to one of them is often a faster first dollar than a direct Tier 1 award.
- Lead with a problem you solve, not a category you belong to. Certification gets you in the room. A concrete cost saving, a capability gap you fill, or a compliance headache you remove is what gets you a contract.
Registration: an afternoon, once your documents and certifications are ready. A response or a sourcing conversation: weeks to many months, and often only when a matching need appears. Treat Elevance like one named target inside a broader corporate pipeline, not a lottery ticket you scratch once.
Elevance is one of dozens of large buyers running active diverse-supplier programs. If you're going to do the work of getting certified and building a strong capability profile, point it at several programs at once. Our corporate program directory shows which companies accept which certifications and how each one takes in new suppliers, so you can build a target list instead of chasing one logo. List your business in our supplier directory so buyers searching for diverse vendors can find you directly. And if you're new to selling into these programs, start with how to get into corporate supplier diversity programs for the full playbook.
Register with Elevance because the spend is real and the door is open. Just don't mistake registration for the finish line. It's the on-ramp.
