Identifying and Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

Humana is dedicated to improving the health of each person we serve and in doing so have a responsibility to reduce health inequities within the communities we serve. As part of our commitment to influencing and enabling an equitable healthcare ecosystem, we recently issued a health equity brief that looks at identifying and addressing racial and ethnic health disparities experienced by Humana members, with content sections covering:

• Data and tools for understanding – advanced data ecosystem investments to understand our members’ social and structural barriers to health and infrastructure to personalize outreach and care.
  • Process includes → identifying disparities, developing performance measures and then implementing evidence-based solutions to reduce disparities, while creating transparency to drive synergy across the industry
• Framework for health equity in health plans – as captured in Dr. Olayiwola’s Health Affairs Forefront editorial in 2021, 5 keys to successful health equity leadership in health plans are articulated, including:
  • Social and structural determinants of health
  • Comprehensive clinical care
  • Enhanced consumer journey
  • Academic partnerships and workforce development
  • Community engagement and partnerships
• Focus areas and examples – identifying conditions and populations experiencing the most significant disparities and prioritizing focus areas to influence health outcomes and patient experience. Focus areas include:
  • Improving access to care
  • Improving quality of care
  • Addressing non-medical barriers to healthy living

Humana is developing a health equity strategy that aligns the elimination of disparities and improved health and quality of life to enterprise value. This will help ensure the sustainability of new programs or process improvement initiatives. 

You can read the full Health Equity Issue Brief 2023 here.