equity

The Center for Health Care Strategies, with support from the New York Health Foundation and in partnership with ATW Health Solutions, assisted seven New York-based health care organizations in piloting strategies for engaging patients of color to advance health equity. This CHCS brief outlines considerations for health care organizations in developing patient engagement strategies, including: (1) building trust with patient partners over time; (2) tailoring outreach strategies; (3) using-trauma-informed approaches; (4) engaging patients in data use; and (5) approaching engagement with humility.

The Advancing Health Equity Learning Collaborative is seeking applicants for the next cohort of the collaborative, which will include five teams comprised of Medicaid agencies, managed care organizations, and health care provider organizations or systems. The learning collaborative will help teams develop shared equity priorities, uncover the drivers of disparities in their member populations, and create payment models to support equity-focused care transformation.

Late yesterday CMS released a State Medicaid Director Letter (SMDL 22-003) providing guidance for the first-ever HCBS Quality Measure Set, the first of two planned guidance documents from CMS. The HCBS Quality Measure Set is included in the SMD, starting on page 14. The list of measures includes the NQF number (if applicable), measure steward, and data collection method, as well as information on whether each measure addresses section 1915(c) waiver assurances and/or can be used to assess access, LTSS rebalancing, and/or community integration and HCBS settings requirements.

A Master Plan for Aging (MPA) is a cross-sector, state-led strategic planning process that can help states transform the infrastructure and coordination of services that support older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers.This brief outlines unexpected benefits of the MPA process, and illustrates how they can help states respond to new priorities and challenges, such as public health emergencies and health equity.

FEMA is seeking qualified individuals with expertise on the needs of people with disabilities and older adults for emergency preparedness, response, and recovery to serve on the agency’s National Advisory Council. Selected council members will guide future recommendations on topics including equity, climate, readiness and workforce. Applications are due on Thursday, March 31, 2022.

The CMS Office of Minority Health (OMH) has published a new report, Trends in Racial, Ethnic, Sex, and Rural-Urban Inequities in Health Care in Medicare Advantage: 2009-2018. Since 2015, CMS OMH has published annual reports highlighting inequities in the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries nationwide. Until now, these reports have focused on comparisons within a single year. This new report analyzes historical trends in inequities by race, ethnicity, sex, and geography among Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans nationwide.

The Center for Health Care Strategies, with support from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, conducted a 50-state survey and a set of interviews to gauge the broad range of engagement strategies being used by Medicaid agencies. This report highlights key findings from the survey, including engagement themes, challenges, and recommendations for Medicaid agencies that can have lasting impact on outcomes, quality, equity, and cost.

In this episode of the Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast series, Ivory Banks, chief of staff at the Department of Medical Assistance Services, Commonwealth of Virginia, and Marlia Mattke, assistant administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, share their successes and challenges in pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that better support staff of color in Medicaid agencies.

Funded by ACL, this resource library collects digital materials from the Older Adults' Equity Collaborative member organizations to provide tools and guidance to the aging services network, providers, older adults and family caregivers. The resources included cover topics of social isolation and mental health, Alzheimer's and Dementia, disabilities, caregiving, retirement income and security, and emergency planning.

The New York Academy of Medicine, with support from ACL, has created the Older Adults Equity Collaborative Resource Library to help advance equity in aging services. This digital library collects resources for diverse populations of older adults, their caregivers, and aging service providers. It also provides technical assistance and training to the aging services network to better serve a diverse population of older adults.