OLEAN, NY – JUNE 10: A couple hold hands at dawn, after sleeping in their cars, to see a doctor at … [+]
Early this year, The Black Directors Health Equity Agenda, BDHEA, hosted a national summit on advancing healthcare for Black Americans. Conversations centered around community health navigation, the future of work, and finding power in partners, among other pressing topics. With Black people facing increased barriers to accessing and utilizing health care, achieving health equity must be a top priority for every organization.
Inequities in health are not a new topic, and for Black Americans, progress in this area is still slow. Today, this population faces persistent disparities in health care and health outcomes, according to a recent publication from the Kaiser Family Foundation. These include higher uninsured rates, being more likely to go without care due to cost, and worse reported health status, leading to a life expectancy that is nearly five years shorter compared to White people (72.8 years vs. 77.5 years). The infant mortality rate is also more than two times higher in Black infants than in White infants. Furthermore, Black people are three times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related reasons than their White counterparts. These harrowing statistics show the critical need to establish initiatives that tackle healthcare disparities to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes.
As organizations continue to grow and ensure success, they must emphasize healthcare for all, particularly those from marginalized and underserved groups. Still, barriers to health equity may exist, ranging from social determinants to poor health literacy, provider biases, and poor provider-patient communication. However, such issues are not the only obstacles to achieving health equity. Additional barriers to strategic progress include competing priorities, insufficient financial commitment, and a lack of business case, as leaders pointed out in the recently released second annual 2024 Health Equity Outlook Report from the EY Center for Health Equity. Hence, closing the equity gap will require a new way of thinking and trying new approaches.
Making The Business Case
Survey results from 500 health equity leaders across payer, provider, government, life sciences, and non-profit sectors showed that 73% of respondents expect an increase in prioritizing health equity over the next year, so overcoming barriers to achieving health equity should also be on organizational agendas. Critical to success is the ability to develop financial modeling within a portfolio of prioritized clinical conditions targeted for health equity gap closure, said Dr. Yele Aluko, EY Chief Medical Officer, Director of Center for Health Equity, and Managing Director. “This modeling includes understanding the projected investment in people, technology, programs, and clinical care coordination accountability required to drive disease prevention and early detection that ultimately drives the significant cost avoidance invulnerable populations at risk for health disparities.” According to Dr. Aluko, projecting and aligning the upside with the investment need provides a business case that is more likely to be embraced by health system leaders.
Building Cultural Competence
Even as organizations strive to advance health equity, they must view their efforts through cultural competency, an equally important issue. Hence, investing in this area is necessary to improve health outcomes. Susan Garfield, EY Americas Chief Public Health Officer, explains that cultural competence is a critical set of integrated skills and people that enable providers to better interact with a diverse patient population and their families. “Understanding the cultural backdrop and norms, language, and social norms of different patient groups improves the ability to engage and create trust meaningfully. These factors can positively impact health equity goals and help healthcare providers reach communities in greatest need more effectively.” She further emphasized that cultural competence is built through community engagement, hiring diverse providers at all levels of the patient engagement continuum, and proactively training all colleagues who work with patients.
Creating Innovative Solutions
As echoed throughout the BDHEA 2024 Summit, now is the time to address the health equity gap. We must chart our course to advance health equity, not for performance’s sake but for genuinely impacting health and wellbeing. Deborah Phillips, Executive Director of the Black Directors Health Equity Agenda, states that BDHEA is pursuing a holistic, comprehensive, national solution to mitigate health disparities and outcomes. “We also believe that increasing the number of Black directors and senior leadership is a step in the right direction toward having discussions.” Additionally, health organizations must find power in partners, collaborating across sectors to achieve inclusive healthcare. It means working with partners to promote an all-hands-on-deck approach and sensitivity to cultural and social differences. It also means an active involvement in initiatives to combat the systemic barriers preventing access to quality healthcare throughout underserved communities.
Ultimately
Change is difficult, but organizations must design innovative, inclusive, and lasting solutions for health equity.