Seeking NCQA's Multicultural Health Care Distinction
Western Health Advantage (WHA) is preparing for our initial NCQA Multicultural Health Care Distinction survey in June 2022. NCQA evaluates how well an organization complies with standards for collecting race, ethnicity and language (R/E/L) data, providing language assistance, cultural responsiveness, quality improvement of culturally and linguistically appropriate care and services (CLAS), and the reduction of health care disparities1. Improving health equity and reducing health care disparities for our members is a key focus for WHA.
Maintaining a practitioner network capable of serving our diverse membership is vital. Although the collection of practitioner R/E/L is strictly voluntary, it helps determine the capacity of our network to meet the language and cultural needs and preferences of our members. When patients are given the option to choose a practitioner of the same race or ethnic background, or speak the same language, they feel greater comfort and trust2; which may in turn help improve satisfaction and health outcomes. WHA only has R/E data on 1.3% of our network providers and requests your assistance to improve that rate. Once your information is updated with your medical group, it will be shared with WHA and included in the provider directory for members to access.
When R/E/L data is available, it helps us define our population in order to meet its’ unique health care challenges, and address heath care equity and disparities. Currently, WHA only has R/E data on 27.43% of our Commercial members making it difficult to determine vulnerabilities and disparities. Entering patient demographics into your EHR at every patient interaction will ensure accuracy and provide WHA building blocks in which to enhance programs and services.
In October, WHA provided each of our network medical groups with our annual Cultural and Linguistics Report detailing medical group specific details. This report included resources for distribution to the practitioners including instructions on how to access WHAs Language Assistance Program, patient education resources available in 57 languages, and cultural competence training resources that offer CME/CEU. Keeping abreast of the data and current resources helps ensure cultural competence and can improve the quality of care provided. These resources can be found on WHA’s secure Provider Portal at https://www.westernhealth.com/provider/secure/language-assistance-program/.
1 NCQA Programs. https://www.ncqa.org/programs/health-plans/multicultural-health-care-mhc/. Accessed 11/5/2021.
2 Hopkins Tanne J. (2002). Patients are more satisfied with care from doctors of same race. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 325(7372), 1057.