After Aspen: Driving health equity action

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is addressing some of most pressing health care issues in America and continued to advance and elevate health equity conversations among key stakeholders via a variety of hosted sessions at Aspen Ideas: Health in Aspen, Colorado (June 2022).

The festival brought together more than 800 thought leaders from across the health care community, including industry executives, policymakers, academics and non-profit leaders. BCBSA led and participated in a variety of sessions surrounding health equity, maternal health and mental health. This unique opportunity to collaborate and drive innovation underscores the BCBSA commitment to turn ideas into action to support the health of all Americans.

Here is a closer look at what BCBSA covered, and the actions underway:

All Mothers Deserve to Live: Combating Maternal Health Inequity

The challenge: Maternal and infant mortality rates are far higher in the U.S. than in any other wealthy country. And new data from Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) companies show that women of color are bearing a disproportionate burden of childbirth complications. For example, Black women face ~60% higher risk of severe complications than White women. The complexity of this maternal health crisis requires health care leaders to address solutions from both the public and private sectors.

Participants (left to right):
• Kathleen Regan, EVP and COO, Commonwealth Fund (Moderator)
• Kim Keck, president and CEO, BCBSA
• Dora Hughes, MD, MPH, chief medical officer, The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation
• Stacey Stewart, president and CEO, March of Dimes

What they are saying: “80% of what influences a person’s health happens outside of a doctor’s office. We must address the social determinants of health that lead to or exacerbate disparities, focusing on root causes to help pregnant women, mothers and babies get the care they need.” - Kim Keck

Taking action: Keck urged all stakeholders to join BCBSA in our work toward a better more equitable system of health for all mothers, and shared how BCBS companies are addressing maternal health disparities from all angles:

• Policy and advocacy: Working to strengthen and scale policies and programs to meet the needs across the country.
• Provider partnerships: Creating incentives and training for providers to offer care that is sensitive and remove unconscious bias within health care delivery.
• Addressing social determinants of health (SDOH): Focusing on root causes to help pregnant women, mothers and babies get the care they need.
• Data: Continuing to drive efforts for more and better data to truly understand the gaps that exist today and create the interventions that will move the needle.

More information: BCBS companies are taking immediate and ongoing action to address maternal health disparities. BCBSA also developed a list of 10 tangible steps organizations can adopt to improve maternal health and make a measurable difference in health disparities.

Addressing Racial and Other Health Disparities with Data

The challenge: Lack of actionable data remains a barrier to addressing health disparities in a meaningful way. We need to have more standardized and comprehensive race, ethnicity and language (REL) data to establish priorities and design effective interventions.

Participants (left to right):
• Keysha Brooks-Coley, vice president, advocacy, BCBSA
• Dora Hughes, MD, MPH, chief medical officer, The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation

What they are saying: Hughes and Brooks-Coley discussed the role of data collection in advancing health equity, the key challenges to collecting this data and how public-private partnerships can help to expand and accelerate this vision for a more equitable future for all.

More information: BCBSA’s recent report calls for industry adoption of data collection standards to overcome one of the biggest barriers to advancing health equity.

Combating the Youth Mental Health Crisis

The challenge: More than 7 million children in the U.S. struggle with mental health conditions, but only half will receive treatment. This is why late last year, three leading groups focused on children’s health declared adolescent mental health a national emergency.

Participants (left to right):
• Dr. Tom Insel, executive chairman, Vanna Health
• Sean Robbins, executive vice president, external affairs, BCBSA

What they are saying: The pandemic, economy and other stressors have levied a heavy toll on all Americans, but especially our youth. Robbins and Dr. Insel discussed the state of youth mental health today and a three-pronged framework to better outcomes for those recovering from or managing a mental health issue—people (addressing loneliness and support), place (ensuring someone has a safe sanctuary or home) and purpose (finding a mission).

More information: Keck announced four priorities to transform mental health care earlier this year, with youth mental health at the top of the list.

The Role of Chief Health Equity Officers

The challenge: Today’s chief health equity officers are oftentimes holding the first-ever role for their organization. How do they determine their role and what does this position look like moving forward, particularly in the health care space?

Participants (left to right):
• Dr. Kelli Tice, chief health equity officer, Florida Blue
• Dr. Darrell Gray, chief health equity officer, Elevance Health, Inc.
• Dr. Adam Myers, senior vice president and chief clinical transformation officer, BCBSA

What they are saying: Dr. Tice and Dr. Gray spoke about coming into their newly created roles, their vision for the future and shared changes they’re implementing to prioritize health equity within their organizations and their communities. They also acknowledged the long journey ahead to achieving health equity and underscored how the data and insights being uncovered around disparities—while alarming—should further reiterate the urgency of the issue and actions needed to close these gaps. The issues of equity are deep-seated and cannot be solved overnight or at one Board meeting. BCBS companies are committed to driving tangible solutions on behalf of the nearly 115 million people they serve.

Venues like the Aspen Ideas: Health provide unique opportunities to advance health equity conversations, as well as collaborate with stakeholders from both the public and private sector, tackling some of the most complex health care issues facing Americans.

Call to Action: The responsibility of serving one in three Americans is what drives the commitment of BCBS companies to be leaders and identify what each of us can do to reimagine and create a better system of health. Learn more about our efforts to support affordable and equitable health care at HealthofAmerica.com

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a federation of 34 independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.

All company brands and names used in this article are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.