Effective strategies for collecting health-equity-related member data to identify and address health disparities
Challenges, strategies, and outcomes of collecting member self-reported data to close data gaps.
SameSky Health™ hosted a webinar, Effective strategies for collecting health-equity-related member data to identify and address health disparities, to discuss solutions to successfully collect critical member data to track health equity metrics and execute effective initiatives. The featured speakers were Abner Mason, founder and CEO of SameSky Health, and Meredith Welsh, SVP of health operations at SameSky Health. View the recording.
Challenges
It's a known fact that enormous gaps exist around health-equity-related data. In fact, an analysis conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health in November 2022, found that sociodemographic data including race, ethnicity, language, disability status, race and ethnicity, and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data had completeness issues across every line of business including fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and CHIP, and the Marketplace.1
Common challenges in data collection across the industry:
Limited or lack of SOGI data: It is a newer data point compared to others, such as race and ethnicity.
Inability to decipher between data sources and if the data is estimated or direct collection: This can impact the ability of plans to accurately understand the quality of data available, which therefore impacts the understanding of health disparities.
Data storage challenges: Can you adequately capture if someone is multiracial? If you don’t have a way to capture the data or adjust previous data, you won’t understand someone’s true identity.
Uniform policy and understanding around slowly changing dimensions: Are you collecting data at regular intervals to maintain accurate records? Recognize that someone’s racial identity can change over time.
“We are starting to see an alignment between regulatory bodies and healthcare stakeholders and plans and health systems. It’s never too late to do the right thing…We can lean in here and collect the kind of info that will allow us to create the kind of trust and personalized experiences with health plan members and patients that will allow us to reduce disparities.””
Strategies
The first step in moving the dial on health equity is through the collection of more comprehensive and accurate data. Health plans play a critical role in driving this effort because of their end-to-end visibility into individual care needs. SameSky Health helps plans fill in the gaps and missing data within member profiles to create personalized healthcare journeys throughout the member life cycle.
Our top five data collection strategies include:
Asking small questions: Simply asking, “Is now a good time?” at the beginning of a call can change the trajectory of the conversation.
Framing the ask: There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to requesting personal information. Appealing to different populations and adjusting to how questions may be perceived is an important consideration.
Providing clarity: A clean, well-defined introduction on how long the questions will take eases the member’s state of mind.
Training health plan partner teams: Provide clear guidance to the team and practice interactions and responses. Give them tools and the knowledge necessary to answer questions.
Creating culturally sensitive interactions: Learn best cultural practices and then take the time to slow down and appreciate cultural norms.
Outcomes
In partnership with Medicaid plans, SameSky Health has had tremendous success in collecting important health-equity-related data. In one example, 89% of the members we engaged were willing to provide SOGI data. 78% of members updated their ethnicity from “unknown” and 25% of members identified social needs such as housing or food insecurity.
We have experienced similar trends with the Medicare Advantage members we’ve engaged. Data collection is centered around building trusted relationships that encourage members to feel comfortable enough to share their information. Members get connected to the resources and services they need, and health plans see better health outcomes at lower costs. With the right data, we can get to the root causes of the barriers members are facing and address them. It’s time to take action toward creating a healthcare system that works better for everyone.
“Taking the time to collect the data is really important. To build that trusted relationship and to answer people’s fears takes a little bit of time…and it’s so important to do this because it enables you to get to the root cause of the issues that are causing health disparities so that you can start to address them and help members get access to the tools, resources and care they need.””
Read our whitepaper, Better data for equitable healthcare, for additional information.
Footnotes1The Path Forward: Improving Data to Advance Health Equity Solutions, Table 2, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health, November 2022. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/path-forwardhe-data-paper.pdf
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