The impact of engaging members through culturally tailored outreach
Health isn’t one size fits all, and healthcare can’t be one size fits all either
The old approach to healthcare just isn’t working. People want to be treated uniquely based on their background, culture, and needs. As individuals, we all differ in how we understand, engage with, and use the healthcare system. Using culturally tailored outreach with members contributes to building trust and allows us to gather better data. We must treat members like who they are, matters.
Gathering more complete data such as race, ethnicity, and language (REL) information, sexual orientation, and gender identity (SOGI) information, and social drivers of health data, allows us to better support members in their healthcare journeys. Collection of this quantitative data:
Builds trust and meaningful engagement with members
Gathers, shares, and assesses timely and accurate data on member preferences and needs
Links public health and social services
Provides care management, coordination, and care transitions across delivery systems
Identifies and mitigates social drivers of health to reduce disparities
Dr. Pooja Mittal, Chief Health Equity Officer at Health Net, joined SameSky Health Founder and CEO, Abner Mason in a recent webinar focused on why culture and data matter in helping plans understand and personalize engagement with their members. View the recording.
Health Net engaged SameSky Health to build trust with their members and improve COVID vaccination uptake – a complex challenge in any population. Using culturally tailored outreach and data, we were able to understand and empathize with different members based on their cultural backgrounds to address vaccine hesitancy. By building trust and simply listening to members, we tackled additional health barriers. Examples of the barriers we identified included overcoming transportation issues, providing the ability to make appointments for multiple family members in one call, and building rapport with members who once were opposed to the vaccine. Read additional details.
There are many opportunities for health plans to collect and gather better data to meet new quality measures, build trust with members, and also prepare for future regulations. Health Net is continuing to drive health equity in California by working with county systems, community leaders, providers, and families to pilot innovative programs to eliminate racial disparities and improve maternal patient experiences and safety for Black mothers and their babies. The end of the public health emergency (PHE) is also looming, and preparation from plans to know and reach their members will be essential. Culturally tailoring the healthcare experience allows us to reach members and ensure they feel seen and heard. We must prepare and take action now to adjust our member outreach and meet members where they are in order to advance health equity and reduce current barriers to care.
“If we don’t have the data about our members, we can’t meet them where they are at and tailor that approach to try and build trust.””
Share this post: