Santa Clara Valley Healthcare in California has begun notifying 43,000 patients about their eligibility for billing corrections and refunds. The system’s patient outreach effort is a result of a recently settled lawsuit filed against Santa Clara County. In the complaint, former patients alleged the county did not inform them about its hospitals’ charity care and discount payment policies, leading them to have to pay large bills.

UnitedHealthcare awarded grants to 66 nonprofits across 12 states. The grants will support those struggling with social isolation, behavioral health, food insecurity and other social determinants of health.

At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.

Health Net is making a $46 million investment that will be spread out across 26 counties in California, and will support Continuum of Care programs, which are regional or local planning bodies that help those experiencing homelessness find housing and other services.

FarmboxRx’s new program, called Feed by FarmboxRx, will supply 200 people affected by SNAP cuts with one box of mixed fresh produce and one box of pantry items each month for six months. They’ll also receive educational materials on how to prepare the food.

Dr. Ala Stanford, founder of the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, provided hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 tests and vaccines to Black and Brown people in Philadelphia’s underserved neighborhoods during the pandemic. In her view, her work was impactful because she acted promptly and focused on community-based patient engagement.

Health equity strategies need to take factors like racism and lack of power into account, said Dr. Shreya Kangovi, executive director of the Penn Center for Community Health Workers. She made these comments last week at the MedCity INVEST conference in Chicago.

The Rockefeller Foundation is funding two produce prescription pilot programs at VA healthcare systems in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Houston, Texas. Eligible veterans will be able to enroll in About Fresh’s Fresh Connect program, which provides $100 per month through a debit card, allowing the veterans to buy healthy foods at the grocery store.

About 8% of Black adults and 7% of Hispanic adults skipped care because of transportation challenges in the last year, compared to 4% of White adults and 2% of Asian adults, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, 14% of adults with low family incomes passed on care.

A cell phone is one of the best tools to have when caring for those experiencing homelessness, two experts said during a Tuesday panel at the HIMSS 2023 conference in Chicago.

Health disparities are often a result of other socioeconomic factors like housing and nutrition. Because of this, the healthcare industry needs to work with other sectors to improve health equity, said Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe of the World Health Organization, at the HIMSS 2023 conference.

At the AHIP Medicare, Medicaid, Duals and Commercial Markets Forum held last week, two healthcare leaders from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and CVS Health stressed that reducing maternal health disparities is a top priority, with several strategies at play. For CMS, the focus is on encouraging states to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage, while CVS Health is working to leverage doulas in their care delivery.

The Community Equity Alliance aims to grow the community health workforce, advance the connections between healthcare institutions and communities, and improve disparities in heart health and mental health. The first organizations working with CVS Health are Meharry Medical College, Sinai Chicago and Wayne State University.

About 98% of healthcare companies have a health equity strategy, but nearly 60% initiated the strategy in just the last five years and 34% created it during the Covid-19 pandemic, the EY report shows.

Possible strategies for employers to reduce disparities include addressing social determinants of health, improving care navigation, leveraging virtual care and upgrading plan offerings, the authors of a Harvard Business Review report said.

Healthcare organizations need to have clear and specific goals in order to make real change in reducing health disparities, executives from SCAN Health Plan and CVS Health said. The insurer is tackling medication adherence in Hispanic members and flu vaccination rates in Black members, while the retailer is taking on women’s health, heart health and mental health.

Among the takeaways from HLTH 2022 were the impact of consolidation on clinicians, behavioral health tools to help consumers manage stress and anxiety more productively, and how health tech and medtech companies are supporting remote patient monitoring and testing.

In order to make an impact and improve physical and mental health, we need to recognize the need to approach loneliness as a condition. Building connections through social intervention is the most direct way to affect change.

Research has proven there is a strong link between food security and health outcomes. Kaiser Permanente’s $50 million commitment will build on things the organization is already doing, including connecting people with SNAP and sending medically tailored meals to patients recently hospitalized for certain diet-related chronic conditions.

Google announced three updates at the Google Health Equity Summit, including a new video series partnership, improved search features and an expanded program with Fitbit.

Acquiring Shine will help Headspace Health improve its diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging efforts. Shine was first created in 2016 to provide mental health support to those in marginalized communities.

Through the project, 142 rental homes will be renovated and eight new ones will be built. A childcare center will also be created to help alleviate the childcare desert in the area. CVS Health is the latest in healthcare companies to make major investments in social determinants of health.

If the 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid did so, the uninsured rate would drop by 29.1%, the report found. The populations that would benefit the most would be Black Americans, young adults and women of reproductive age.

The increases in enrollment are likely because of changes in the economy, policy changes like Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act and the temporary continuous enrollment requirement from the Family First Coronavirus Response Act, the report said. 

Medically Home partners with health systems to provide care in patients’ homes. As long as there is a roof, electricity, running water and a bathroom, the company can offer its services.

The CEO of SCAN Health Plan has a message for others trying to battle health inequity: get out of the planning phase and learn by doing.

A new partnership between Yuvo Health, an administrative and managed-care solution for community health centers, and Centene subsidiary Fidelis Care aims to bring value-based care to federally qualified health centers in New York and its Medicaid population.

Pharma companies often take the blame for high prescription costs. But a new, industry-sponsored survey shifts attention to insurance industry practices.

Food is one of the fundamental blocks for our survival and has a significant impact on our mental and physical health. An alarming 38 million Americans live in food-insecure households.

The health crisis in Black communities isn’t solely due to lack of access to care. Much of it also stems from well-documented racial disparities and biases, such as biases around pain perception and treatment recommendations.