Leveraging Equity Measures to Identify and Incentivize improvements in Racial Inequities in Care Part I

Self Paced

Duration: 1.25 hours

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) shared the results of a new analysis of racial and ethnic inequities in health care and became the first health plan in Massachusetts to announce it will incorporate equity measures — differences in the quality of care across racial and ethnic groups — into its contracts and payment programs with clinicians who care for Blue Cross members. In preparation for equity-based payment incentives, BCBSMA has partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to convene an Equity Action Community to develop equity-improving capabilities among providers and facilitate collaboration among them.

NCQA will host Dr. Mark Friedberg, Senior Vice President, Performance Measurement & Improvement at Blue Cross and Shannon Welch, MPH, Senior Director at Institute for Healthcare Improvement, for a presentation on this groundbreaking work. Join faculty for an overview of Blue Cross’ plan to address health inequity and racial injustice, results from the recently released Health Equity Report and the launch of a new collaborative intended to assist physicians and hospitals in improving racial inequities in care.

Leveraging Equity Measures to Identify and Incentivize improvements in Racial Inequities in Care Part II 

Live Webinar, November 16, 2022, 12pm - 1pm ET

Duration: 1 hour

In September 2021, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) began to publicly share its analyses on racial and ethnic inequities in health care experienced by members, and became the first health plan in the nation to announce it will incorporate equity measures—differences in the quality of care across racial and ethnic groups—into its contracts and payment programs with clinicians who care for Blue Cross members. 

In this session, the presenters will give an overview of the methodological challenges to measurement-based efforts to improve health equity, and will explain how BCBSMA has addressed these challenges. Challenges have included collecting self-reported race and ethnicity data directly; assessing the accuracy of race and ethnicity data available from other sources; imputing missing race and ethnicity data and accounting for their measurement properties for reporting and accountability; and designing a pay-for-equity program that meets high validity and reliability standards.

Join this training and learn about the BCBSMA plan to help bridge the gap of systemic health inequity and racial injustice.