Announcing Seven Learning Collaborative Teams to Advance Health Equity
Seven teams comprised of state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid health plans, and health care delivery organizations in the states of Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington have been selected to work together to reduce health disparities as members of the Advancing Health Equity Learning Collaborative, launching on October 2, 2019. The Learning Collaborative is a component of the Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation program (AHE) funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AHE is based at the University of Chicago and conducted in partnership with the Institute for Medicaid Innovation and the Center for Health Care Strategies.
The AHE Learning Collaborative will convene the seven teams over the course of two years to design integrated payment and health care delivery reforms to reduce health disparities. The teams will also address social determinants of health as part of their efforts and generate best practice and policy recommendations for national dissemination.
Participating teams include:
Delaware Division of Medicaid and Medical Assistance
AmeriHealth Caritas Delaware
Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
HealthChoice Illinois
CountyCare Health Plan
Cook County Health
Access Community Health Network
MaineCare
Community Care Partnership of Maine
Aroostook Mental Health Services, Inc.
Pines Health Services
The Maine Primary Care Association
The New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey
RWJBarnabas Health System
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
Jersey City Medical Center
Pennsylvania Office of Medical Assistance Programs
Gateway Health Plan
Allegheny Health Network
North Side Christian Health Center
TennCare
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee
Tennessee Maternal Fetal Medicine, PLC
Meharry College of Medicine
Washington State Health Care Authority
Community Health Plan of Washington
Community Health Network of Washington
Integrating Payment and Health Care Delivery Reforms to Achieve Health Equity
Most organizations need a strong business case to sustainably reduce disparities and advance equity in the quality of patient care and health outcomes. Value-based payment models that reward the quality of care may be a key strategy in creating a business case for health equity; however, state Medicaid agencies, health plans and health care delivery organizations are in the early stages of learning how to design such models.
"The work of the Learning Collaborative teams will help the Advancing Health Equity program understand what works—and what does not work—to improve the health and health care of patients experiencing the brunt of health and healthcare inequities. The more we learn how to advance health equity via integrated payment and health care delivery reforms, the better we can improve health care policies in organizations, states, and the nation."
- Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, Co-Director of AHE