Equality Health Value-Based Care Leaders to Present at Hispanic Nurses Summit

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Aug 22, 2024, 11:03 ET

Session Focuses on Identifying and Addressing Social Determinants of Health, Core to Equality Health's Successful Care Model

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Equality Health, a national leader in value-based care with its distinct Medicaid-first care model, announced today that two of its leaders will speak at the annual conference of the Phoenix chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses later this week.

Lauriane Bellot-Hanson, director of health equity and community partnerships, and Genesis Verduzco, manager of community partnerships, will co-present the session, "Health Equity: Bridging Healthcare and Community."

Value-based care (VBC) is an important movement in the U.S. health system to shift away from the current fee for service model to a care delivery approach that enhances patient experiences, drives better health outcomes and reduces healthcare costs.

The joint presentation will cover the importance of screening patients for health-related social needs (HRSN) and creating partnerships with local organizations to solve for these needs. Addressing HRSN, also often referred to as social determinants of health (or SDoH), is vital to VBC success. These are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These factors impact an individual's health and include socioeconomic position, access to healthcare and healthy food, lack of transportation, and housing instability, among others.

These unmet social needs significantly influence one's ability to be and stay healthy and health outcomes. Equality Health believes it is important for HRSN/SDoH to be understood in a broader community context.

"Our approach at Equality Health is unique because we understand – and work to address – the multi-layered factors that impact health," said Bellot-Hanson. "Research has shown that 80% of a person's health is determined by one's community. As a Medicaid-first VBC leader, the communities we serve tend to face significant challenges in their environment: transportation is limited, stores are sparse and offer limited healthy food options, parks are not welcoming, and infrastructure is not built for walking, running, biking or other physical activities.

Such challenges, for example, make it difficult for a person living with diabetes to eat heathy and exercise when they rely on a foodbank for their nutrition and are unable to walk in their community because of lack of sidewalks. We help the providers in the Equality Health network complete the puzzle by addressing HRSN factors their patients face by building partnerships to extend into the community and reduce such risk factors."

Bellot-Hanson and Verduzco will discuss the tools available to identify HRSN, as well as sustainable clinic workflows and strategies to solve HRSN for patients.

Equality Health focuses on enabling independent primary care providers (PCPs) in underserved communities to survive and thrive under VBC. The company's results are real: 11% reduction in ED use and five-star outcomes for patients navigating chronic diseases.

"While most VBC enablers focus on Medicare, Equality Health stands out with a Medicaid-first approach," according to a recent report on the VBC enabler landscape from PitchBook.

The PitchBook report also notes, "Equality Health's focus on Medicaid beneficiaries gives a unique shape to its care model...successful population health management within Medicaid depends heavily on risk stratification, prioritizing interventions, and matching those interventions to the level of need..."

"Health Equity: Bridging Healthcare and Community" will take place on Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, 2:15 to 3 p.m. PT, at the Hyatt Regency in Phoenix.

About Equality Health
Equality Health is a technology-enabled primary care platform that leverages the proven capabilities of value-based payment models to transform healthcare for diverse and often marginalized populations. From predictive modeling to advanced care-tracking tools, utilizing Equality Health's proprietary software, participating PCPs can streamline value-based administration and stay one step ahead of a patient's journey. Equality Health's care model is Medicaid-first in design, partnering with over 3,200 PCPs and 700,000 lives across Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Virginia. Equality Health partners with practices to close care gaps, optimize performance, increase compliance, and improve profitability. Members engage with holistic and personalized programs delivered through the lens of social and cultural needs. Equality Health is revolutionizing how care is delivered through hyper-local resources at scale and establishing critical linkages with payers, providers, members, and community resources. For more information about Equality Health, visit equalityhealth.com or follow EqualityHealth on Facebook, @EqualityHealth on Twitter, and EqualityHealth on LinkedIn.

Media Contact: Mardi Larson, Amendola Communications for Equality Health, [email protected]

SOURCE Equality Health