The U.S. health system has been evolving over the past decade to focus on the quality and value of care. Until recently, though, value-based payment models have not explicitly addressed longstanding racial and ethnic inequities in care. This month, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the not-for-profit health plan I lead, introduced a value-based payment…
In the world of value-based care and alternative payment models, 2022 has seen a heightened focus on health equity. In March, Dora Hughes, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer at the CMS Innovation Center, said the Innovation Center’s 10-year anniversary was a good time to look both back and forward at how its models impact health…
We predicted last year that there would be much attention on the inequities in our health care system. Will we continue to make progress and implement initiatives that right the ship? Here is what the experts have to say. And join us for the next few weeks as we look at what we might see in…
Education is a critical social determinant of health, largely because of its outsized impact on income and therefore other SDOH. There’s some clear-cut evidence underscoring the impact education has on overall health and well-being. In 2021, researchers published in PNAS that folks with higher educational attainment tend to live longer. Adults with a bachelor’s degree are expected…
Leaders at Atlantic Medical Group, a multispecialty physician network that is part of Atlantic Health System, in New Jersey, couldn’t figure out why the response rate for a patient-experience survey was so low among Spanish-speaking patients. The survey was in Spanish, but the response rate was just 8%, less than half the rate from the…
While the quality of U.S. healthcare and patient outcomes has generally increased over time, access to care — and thus to positive patient outcomes — is not equitable to all people. Overall, one in 10 Americans don’t have health insurance, which is fallout of a system breaking under the weight of high costs and deepening…
Food insecurity and low nutritional awareness contribute to multiple chronic health conditions in patients across the United States. Some diseases linked to food insecurity include hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, coronary heart failure, and kidney disease, just to name a few. Food insecurity is a persistent, growing issue, as many low-income urban and rural areas…
Pharmacy Times® interviewed Kamakshi Rao, PharmD, BCOP, FASHP, chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee at the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) and director of the Academic Enterprises and Residency Programs at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC, and Eric Chow, PharmD, BCOP, MPH, vice chair of the DEI…
Health equity became an increasingly important topic this past year. There has been a significant increase in initiatives from legislators and policymakers, as well as increased funding toward historically underserved groups. We reported on Feb. 28 that “Washington has become the second state to begin to create Health Equity Zones to support communities in addressing…
The care coordination and care management platform of InfoMC helps care coordinators and care managers to not only engage patients in their care plans, but also connect them with ease to community-based and other resources to address SDoH needs. InfoMC’s cloud-based healthcare management software uses a person-centered, integrated approach that promotes high-quality, efficient and…