Equity

School-based health centers provide comprehensive reproductive and sexual health services to inner-city public school students, leading to enhanced access to contraception, prenatal care, and screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

A State-based, public–private partnership adapted its successful primary care medical home model to serve pregnant Medicaid beneficiaries, leading to enhanced access to comprehensive prenatal care (including intensive case management for high-risk pregnancies), better adherence to evidence-based care standards, and reductions in low–birth weight babies and rate of primary Cesarean sections.

A traveling team of certified diabetes educators (including a nurse, pharmacist, and dietitian) regularly visits rural clinics to help coordinate diabetes care with clinicians and educate and coach African-American patients with diabetes, leading to improved glycemic control and the potential for meaningful cost savings.

An Arizona clinic for women refugees provides comprehensive, culturally sensitive care across the reproductive life span, leading to enhanced access to services, high patient satisfaction, greater awareness of breast cancer and mammography, and better planning for childbirth.

Using a data-matching program, the state of Louisiana allows qualified, low-income children to be automatically enrolled in Medicaid based on information submitted on applications to the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, enhancing access to Medicaid coverage and health care services and significantly reducing administrative costs.

Health plan members due for colorectal cancer screening and at low risk for the disease receive an automated educational call and a test kit to compete at home and return by mail, leading to a fourfold increase in the likelihood of screening in this hard-to-reach population.
 

An alliance of government and not-for-profit agencies aided the passage of various legislative provisions in Massachusetts designed to create a more stable, systemic role for community health workers, leading to greater professional recognition, an expanded workforce and training infrastructure, and increased funding of services.

In a partnership between a hospital and four community-based organizations, bilingual community health workers help low-income, predominantly Latino families with asthmatic children better manage the disease, leading to fewer asthma-related symptoms, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and missed school days.

A state-funded program gives individuals with mental illness a quarterly allowance for mental health and wellness services that can be spent at their own discretion, allowing them to spend more time living in the community and to function more effectively.

Large health care systems in Detroit came together to develop an organizational structure and common goals and policies designed to strengthen the safety net for uninsured residents, leading to increased enrollment in public insurance, enhanced access to primary and specialty care, and lower uncompensated care costs.