State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS) convened a series of webinars on health equity through managed care. Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible, which requires removing obstacles to health, such as poverty, discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to housing, safe environments, and health care. This five-part series will assist states interested in addressing disparities in health outcomes among Medicaid managed care beneficiaries as a step towards achieving health equity.
Open to all state Medicaid agencies and state agency partners, the series explored:
Webinar #1: Advancing Health Equity in Medicaid Managed Care: An Introduction for States, the first webinar in the series, reviewed the foundational principles of health equity, barriers to its realization and the impact of health disparities.
Webinar #1 Advancing Health Equity in Medicaid Managed Care: An Introduction for States slides
Webinar #1 Advancing Health Equity in Medicaid Managed Care: An Introduction for States recording
Webinar #2: Health Equity and Medicaid Managed Care: Data Collection and Measurement, the second webinar in the series, explored how states can use data collection and measurement to support their efforts to advance health equity in Medicaid managed care.
Webinar#2: Health Equity and Medicaid Managed Care: Data Collection and Measurement slides
Webinar#2: Health Equity and Medicaid Managed Care: Data Collection and Measurement recording
Webinar #3 Evidence-Based Strategies for Reducing Health Disparities, the third webinar in the series, identified evidence-based interventions that states can use to address disparities in their Medicaid managed care programs.
Webinar #3: Evidence-Based Strategies for Reducing Health Disparities slides
Webinar #3: Evidence-Based Strategies for Reducing Health Disparities recording
Webinar #4 Using MCO Contract and Performance Requirements, the fourth webinar in the series, reviewed approaches employed by states to incorporate contract requirements and performance incentives in Medicaid managed care contracts to reduce health disparities among covered populations.
Webinar#4: Using MCO Contract and Performance Requirements slides
Webinar #4: Using MCO Contract and Performance recording
Webinar #5 The Medicaid MCO Experience in Addressing Health Equity, the fifth webinar in the series, profiled the work of one MCO, HealthPartners, in addressing equity issues within its Medicaid line of business. We heard from Brian Lloyd, who manages Health Partners’ organization-wide equity initiative, which includes collecting data to eliminate disparities in care, supporting language access, partnering with communities, and building an organizational understanding of equity, diversity, inclusion, and bias.
Webinar #5: The Medicaid MCO Experience in Addressing Health slides
Webinar #5: The Medicaid MCO Experience in Addressing Health recording
State Health and Value Strategies has also published an issue brief that provides examples from a handful of states that have begun the work of identifying, evaluating, and reducing health disparities within their Medicaid managed care programs. The brief, How States Can Use Measurement as a Foundation for Tackling Health Disparities in Medicaid Managed Care, offers an approach for other states interested in measuring disparities in health care quality as a step towards achieving health equity, such that all Medicaid managed care enrollees have a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.