At Humana, we are working to simplify care as a part of our commitment to improve health outcomes and quality of life for the members, patients, and communities we serve. A key aspect of this simplification involves improving organizational health literacy, and to do this, we partnered with
Organizational health literacy is “the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.[1]” While many health literacy tools exist for hospitals, providers, and pharmacies, at the time the research was performed there were no resources specifically designed for health plans, which frequently interact with patients about both clinical and non-clinical topics.
The study was designed to evaluate existing health literacy resources and identify those with a strong evidence base for successful adoption by health plans. The study, which was recently published in
Focusing on advancing organizational health literacy provides the greatest potential for system-wide improvement in health outcomes related to health literacy because it places the responsibility on the entities that provide health information and services. By identifying and implementing the tools identified in this study, Humana is ensuring the understandability and actionability of health information to make sure everyone knows how to connect to the care and resources they need to achieve their best health.
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