The AMA announced a new $3 million multi-year investment in Chicago’s west side neighborhoods through an existing partnership with West Side United (WSU). Funds will support WSU’s social impact investing done in partnership with community development financial institutions to help provide much-needed capital to foster economic opportunity, revitalize neighborhoods and support community transformation.
Organization: AMA
Date: 10/14/2022
Significance to Grantees: Initiative for community development
Link
DEI News
CMS Brings Health Equity Provisions to MA Carve-In
The hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) demonstration will include elements designed to promote health equity in 2023. Participating Medicare Advantage (MA) Organizations have prepared health equity plans detailing how they will address disparities in outcomes, access, or beneficiaries’ care experiences.
Organization: CMS
Date: 9/30/2022
Significance to Grantees: Health equity provisions for MA organizations
Link
Healthcare Organizations Recognized by NCQA for Health Equity
As part of the Health Equity Accreditation Plus program, NCQA recognized 9 healthcare organizations for their work to address care inequities (e.g., partnering with community groups, offering clinical and social resources, collecting SDOH data):
- Aetna Better Health of Michigan
- Geisinger Health Plan
- Health Net of California
- Hennepin Healthcare (Minneapolis)
- Molina Healthcare of California Partner Plan
- Novant Health’s Coastal Communities, Greater Charlotte (N.C.) market, Greater Winston-Salem (N.C.) market
- Simply Healthcare Plans (Elevance Health)
- UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Michigan
- UPMC For You
Organization: NCQA
Date: 9/29/2022
Significance to Grantees: Health plans and providers recognized by NCQA for health equity work
Link
$8 Billion in New Commitments as Part of Call to Action for White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health
The White House announced a $8 billion in private and public-sector commitments to address hunger and reduce diet-related disease. Several equity-related commitments include:
- Marketplace to connect underrepresented food producers with large-scale food service and retail outlets nationwide
- Summit to discuss integrating nutrition and food insecurity into medical education curricula, with a focus on health equity
- Research initiative to generate tools and evidence to help design and scale “food is medicine” programs to improve health and health equity and reduce health care cost
Organization: The White House
Date: 9/28/2022
Significance to Grantees: Investment for hunger and diet-related disease
Link
HHS Approves Groundbreaking Medicaid Initiatives in Massachusetts and Oregon
HHS approved Medicaid section 1115 demonstration initiatives in Massachusetts and Oregon. Initiatives will ensure children in Oregon have continuous Medicaid coverage until the age of 6, and expand access to coverage and address nutrition and housing needs in the 2 states. The initiatives also take steps to address unmet health-related social needs (e.g., evidenced-based nutritional assistance and medically tailored meals, clinically-tailored housing supports)
Organization: HHS
Date: 9/28/2022
Significance to Grantees: Equity for Medicaid populations
Advancing Health Equity: A Recommended Health Equity Framework for Accountability in Medicaid
In collaboration with California Health Care Foundation, NCQA developed a health equity measurement framework that state Medicaid programs can use to measure accountability in health plan managed care contracting. The framework provides 6 core quality domains, each with 2-5 associated quality measures.
Organization: National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA)
Date: 9/15/2022
Significance to Grantees: Health equity measurement framework