Health equity

Our mission

Health equity is the attainment of optimal health for all people, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to attain their full health potential and well-being regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes, including social drivers of health (SDOH).

More equitable healthcare is attainable. However, health inequities impact all of us, causing higher illness and death rates and greater financial strain at both community and national levels. It is imperative we overcome these barriers that prevent better health for all Kansans. 

At Healthy Blue, we combine national and state-level data insights, local community engagement, and an intentional integration of whole health needs and social drivers of health, to meet KanCare’s goal of reducing healthcare disparities. 

Cultural competency

Healthy Blue recognizes the increasing importance of delivering culturally relevant healthcare benefits, solutions, and education that address the diverse needs of individuals and families in the communities we serve. Healthy Blue has an interdepartmental approach and collaboration to help ensure the implementation of culturally and linguistically appropriate healthcare related services to members with diverse health beliefs and practices, limited English proficiency (LEP) and variable literacy levels.  

For more information and training around addressing the diverse needs of individuals and families we serve, please visit our Serving diverse populations page or refer to your provider manual.

Cultural competency work plan

Our health equity and cultural competency work plan meets state goals while moving the needle on improving health outcomes and providing culturally tailored services to all KanCare members and their communities. 

Cultural competency efforts aim to equip every person involved with Healthy Blue with the resources, knowledge, language, and skills needed to provide and foster culturally affirming, inclusive healthcare for all KanCare members. Through committee meetings, work groups, community advisory councils, and professional evaluations, our work plan is stringently reviewed and consistently revised to monitor the measurable progress made on the goals and address newly identified opportunities. 

Cultural competency work plan - Coming soon

Health equity by design

Our health equity by design approach is a direct reflection of Healthy Blue’s purpose and strategic pillars. It’s an efficient and value-added approach that facilitates growth and realizes the full potential of our role in a more equitable health and healthcare ecosystem. This extends beyond the traditional race-centered view of health equity to optimizing health at the individual level for all, prioritizing efforts and investments that deliver on that outcome, and elevating our consumers and communities that are socially and/or economically marginalized.

Health equity is designed to:

• Expand and standardize the collection, analysis, and reporting of member data (preferences, demographics and attributes)
• Enhance provider capacity, incentives, and accountability to deliver on advancing our healthcare ecosystem
• Identify and scale best practices for health outcome improvement
• Cultivate and sustain an enterprise culture of optimizing health at the individual level for all
• Innovate to drive improved access and affordability

Strategy and framework

At Healthy Blue, our health strategy is grounded in our Whole Health model, a person-centered model that integrates members’ physical, behavioral, pharmacy, and social needs to proactively address the wide-ranging factors that contribute to health outcomes. Foundational to our strategy is a data-driven approach that embodies continuous quality improvement, a deliberately defined process that is designed to improve health outcomes and ensure health equity by design. 

Whole Health domains

Healthy Blue stratifies our health equity work through focused whole health domains, comprised of: 

Maternal and child health — helping ensure healthy pregnancies, healthy births, and improved health outcomes for pregnant women and children across Kansas. The focus is to reduce the risk of pregnancy-related complications and improve birth outcomes and long-term health outcomes for the women and children in our state.  

Chronic conditions — supporting our members in the prevention and management of chronic conditions. This involves helping members lower their risk of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers, reducing the incidence of diabetes and heart disease, and increasing medication adherence to assist with management of chronic conditions.  

Behavioral health/substance use disorder — addressing challenges that our members encounter in accessing appropriate and quality behavioral health and substance use disorder (SUD) services, identifying evidence-based strategies to promote behavioral health, and recognizing the connection between severe mental illness/SUD and unmet social drivers. 

Social drivers of health (SDOH) — Identifying and addressing social needs of our membership, highlighting factors outside of typical healthcare delivery that are necessary to reduce health disparities and increase positive health outcomes for the individuals and communities in Kansas. Examples of SDOH factors include food instability, transportation challenges, housing instability, poverty, and the societal challenges faced by justice involved individuals. 

Rural health —identifying and strengthening access to quality healthcare services for Healthy Blue members in rural areas of our state, identifying disparities faced by members living in rural areas and support of efforts to increase availability of services and resources