{"id":52608,"date":"2024-02-28T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roundstoneinsurance.com\/?p=52608"},"modified":"2024-05-14T13:43:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T17:43:26","slug":"the-importance-of-culturally-competent-healthcare-for-todays-employer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roundstoneinsurance.com\/excelsior\/blog\/the-importance-of-culturally-competent-healthcare-for-todays-employer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Culturally Competent Healthcare for Today\u2019s Employer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, the leadership team at Roundstone met to explore the concept of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). The discussion was led by Dr. James Knight, a DEI Strategist who works with business, education, government, and non-profit leaders to help build inclusive environments where people can thrive. We began this DEI initiative because we do not take our culture at Roundstone for granted and want to ensure it is one of belonging, respect, and curiosity. As we were talking, another idea sparked that connects directly to our mission of affordable, quality healthcare for all \u2013 the idea of culturally competent healthcare.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is Culturally Competent Healthcare?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

DEI comes to life in all sorts of ways in an organization through policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals. An employer\u2019s employee benefits program is one key area where you can activate DEI, creating healthcare to provide effective care to people with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors. It\u2019s a practical strategy that delivers better health outcomes to employees, and cost savings to the employer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Employers choose to self-insure health benefits because they want control and flexibility not afforded by the traditional fully-insured, fixed-premium model. The Roundstone Captive facilitates self-funding for small and mid-market employers by allowing them to share risk among other like-sized companies, improving predictability and reducing volatility compared to self-funding solely with stop-loss reinsurance. This freedom allows employers to build a highly personalized benefits plan that serves their unique workforce population.\u00a0 It gives them the framework to curate benefits offerings and adapt cost containment solutions to meet social, cultural, and linguistic needs of their workforce.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why Does Culturally Competent Healthcare Matter?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Culturally competent healthcare is not just an HR buzzword. Nor is it promoting discrimination.\u00a0 Numerous studies show that social determinants of health (SDOH) – non-medical factors that impact an individual\u2019s health or pursuit of health \u2013 can affect health outcomes. Some examples of SDOH include things like do they live in a food desert where it is difficult to find fresh and healthy food? Do they belong to a strong ethnic community? Do they own a car and have access to transportation? How high is their health literacy? Are they living alone?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition, demographics matter, especially age, race and sex. A <\/span>recent BMJ study<\/span><\/a> by Dr. David Newman-Toker, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, showed that women and racial and ethnic minorities are 20% to 30% more likely than white men to experience a misdiagnosis. According to <\/span>the Cleveland Clinic<\/span><\/a>, Black newborns die at more than two times the rate of white newborns. There are many contributing factors, including the increase in chronic health conditions among Black women before pregnancy, like type 2 diabetes and hypertension.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women.\u00a0 Yet <\/span>one in five women say a healthcare provider has ignored or dismissed their symptoms<\/span><\/a>, and 17% say they have been treated differently because of their gender.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to Feeding America, the biggest health disparity among Latinos is diabetes, with a 50% death rate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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LGBTQ+ people are at greater risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts, mood disorders and anxiety, and other behavioral and physical health issues, according to a <\/span>recent report by Cigna<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
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All these statistics are staggering, but you might be asking, what can I, as an employer, do about this?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What Employers Can Do to Promote Health Equity<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Healthcare is deeply personal, but somehow the healthcare system doesn\u2019t feel that way. Employers have a unique opportunity to change that experience for their employees through a self-funded health plan<\/a> with built-in complementary wellness programs and support services for the uniqueness of their company culture. It can seem daunting, but like any strategic initiative with long-term and lasting impact, you simply start small and grow.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here are a few basic steps to take to improve access to healthcare, which will, in turn, improve value:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Analyze data for actionable insights\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Knowledge is power. You can\u2019t have knowledge without data.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A huge advantage of being self-funded is access to your claims data for insights that can help you control costs<\/a>. When you marry claims data with SDOH and demographics, you can compare your data to benchmarks and spot outliers, better predict future health risks in your population, and identify areas for improvements — what a wealth of knowledge! For example:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Situation: Low usage of primary care doctors in minority populations<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>
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Possible Solutions: Low or no co-pay for doctor visits; bring in resources from the local <\/span> community; adopt care navigation that matches patients with providers of same sex and <\/span> race.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Situation: High number of women under 40<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span>
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\nPossible Solutions: Communicate benefits of pre-natal and maternity care; Ensure <\/span> women of color can connect with a \u201cculturally congruent\u201d care team that understands <\/span> and respects their background; Provide adequate mental health support services<\/a> for <\/span> post-partum needs; Offer virtual telehealth visits that can help to complement in-<\/span> person visits, answer questions 24\/7 to ease anxiety, and improve outcomes.\u00a0 As <\/span> evidence of the trend to transform maternity care overall<\/a>, check out what <\/span>start-up Oula<\/span><\/a> is doing to balance obstetric and midwifery care, to meet the demand for more <\/a><\/span> personalized birthing experiences.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Explore innovative cost containment and digital health solutions<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Where there are challenges, there are also opportunities to innovate. Technology and digital health solutions have been growing rapidly in the wake of COVID-19, when telehealth emerged to fill an urgent need<\/a>. Now there are countless digital health solutions that employers can evaluate to support culturally competent and access to high-value care. Here are just a few examples:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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