Health Disparities

Banner Medicare Advantage thinks it's really important to understand and address differences in the health status of people, how they can see a doctor, and how good the care they get is in the communities we serve. 

Banner Medicare Advantage just created two committees to help make sure everyone gets the best care, no matter who they are.

• Health Equity Committee
• Enrollee Advisory Committee

In addition, Banner Medicare Advantage has three additional forums that support health equity initiatives:

• Cultural Competency Committee
• Community Reinvestment Workgroup 
• Neighborhood Advisory Councils

All four work together to make sure everyone has a fair chance at being healthy. Banner Medicare Advantage has included the goals and details for each of them, such as who leads them, who's involved, what they aim to do, what they plan to achieve, and how often they meet.

Health Equity Committee 

A really important part of Banner Medicare Advantage's plan for fair health is using different kinds of data to find out if there are differences in healthcare. By seeing these differences with data, they can make programs that work better for everyone. The Health Equity Committee is working on their plans, checking to see if they work, and talking about them with doctors, companies they work with, community groups, and other people in the community.

Enrollee Advisory Committee

The Banner Medicare Advantage Dual Enrollee Advisory Committee (EAC) has different kinds of people from the plan's members and the areas it serves. They ask for ideas on how to make it easier for Dual members and their families to get the services they need. The EAC does many things, including:

• Listen to feedback and use it to make decisions and make our plans better.
• Solve new problems as they come up.
• Make sure we meet what our members want and need.
• Find and fix problems that make it hard for some members to get good healthcare.
• Make it easier for members to get the services they need and make sure different services work well together.
• Deal with problems with our services and the places where members can get care.

Cultural Competency Committee

The Cultural Competency Committee makes sure healthcare services are given in a way that respects different cultures. They teach members, look at the cultural differences of our members to see what they need, make things better, and keep track of training for doctors, other companies we work with, and our staff. 

Some of the things the Cultural Competency Program Committee does are:

• Review important required reports or tasks. 
• Create training about understanding different cultures as required.
• Divide tasks into smaller groups for research, updates, and other jobs.
• Keep track of any issues about understanding different cultures and how they're fixed.

Community Reinvestment Workgroup 

This workgroup carries out the following activities:

• Find where there aren't enough services and decide which things need funding the most.
• Make a plan for how to fund community projects.
• Decide which projects should get funding and which ones shouldn't.
• Look at reports every few months from groups that received funding.
• Help groups and people with applying for funding and working on community projects.

Neighborhood Advisory Councils 

Banner Medicare Advantage created the Healthy Community Dashboard to help Neighborhood Advisory Councils reach these goals:

• Find out which health problems are most common in their community.
• Find out if some people have worse health problems than others.
• Make plans, put them into action, and help with things to make these health problems better for everyone.