How HRAs Are the First Step to Achieve Health Equity

Health risk assessments (HRAs) play a crucial role in empowering members to take charge of their health, facilitating early intervention and supporting population-wide efforts to improve health and well-being. An HRA captures self-reported data from plan members, including medical history, personal demographics and social risk factors. With the right tools in place, HRAs can lay the groundwork for interventions to address health disparities.

Start with the Right HRA

A comprehensive health strategy starts with an HRA that provides health plans with quantified risk factors and focal points for intervention. Conducting a HRA as early as possible in member enrollment ensures plans gather the appropriate data to guide:

• Care gap initiatives
• Risk adjustment updates
• Quality strategies
• Member experience improvement

By screening individuals early in the year, HRAs serve as a foundation for identifying risks and building interventions to prevent the progression of disease and improve health outcomes.

Healthmine’s HRA is National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) certified, offered in both print and digital formats based on plan and member preferences, and automatically ingested to Healthmine’s plan-facing dashboards in Opportunity Manager. It asks all the necessary questions while eliminating manual data entry and improving response rates, so health plans can focus resources on valuable data analysis.

For the first time since 1997, the Office of Management and Budget recently released revisions to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, which governs the standards for maintaining, collecting and presenting federal data on race and ethnicity. Healthmine has already configured our HRA to accommodate these new regulatory requirements.

Understand the Data

Plans experience a 20% increase in condition identification through self-reported data, providing a better picture of population health trends, evaluating the effectiveness of wellness initiatives, and strategically allocating resources to address prevalent health issues.

Specifically, demographic data helps health plans identify and address disparities in access to care, health outcomes, and health experiences among different population groups. Collecting this information allows health plans to offer more personalized and culturally competent care – and start to fulfill Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements on health equity.

Healthmine’s standard HRA asks about key factors of health equity, pushing plans towards satisfying CMS requirements and providing the necessary foundation for recommending health actions. These questions also serve a second, and equally important, purpose. In the member experience, there are few things that establish trust quicker than a plan recognizing and acting on an individual’s preferences. Examples from Healthmine’s HRA include:

Race and Ethnicity: Racial and ethnic background information is crucial for assessing health disparities and ensuring equitable healthcare delivery. Once this information is captured, Healthmine can use it to tailor member outreach with appropriate and relevant imagery and messaging.

Language Preference: Understanding language preferences helps health plans offer culturally and linguistically appropriate services to improve communication and access to care. Healthmine can also use this information to continue to provide communications and experiences in the member’s preferred language, beyond just the HRA.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI): Collecting data on SOGI is increasingly recognized as important for addressing health disparities among LGBTQ+ individuals and ensuring inclusive healthcare services. This information is becoming increasingly important and common and Healthmine uses this response to provide ongoing accurate member communications, reflecting the member’s preferred pronouns which has substantial influence in how much the member trusts their plan.

Social Determinants of Health: Non-medical factors and conditions can significantly impact an individual's health outcomes. These drivers are rooted in social, economic, and environmental aspects, and can have a profound influence on an individual's well-being. This is critical information that could prevent a member from getting any care at all. Actions like support with reliable transportation, access to healthy food, prescription alternatives for those struggling to pay for medications has significant implications for the member’s health and the plan’s quality and member experience scores.

Because responses to Healthmine’s HRA are automatically available in plan dashboards, plans can expedite analysis and interventions that follow. By pairing health equity responses with other HRA responses plans can tailor next best steps. For example, if a member indicates they lack reliable transportation but do have a primary care provider (PCP) already, the plan can focus on facilitating transportation services to get the member to their annual appointments and any necessary follow-up.

Encouraging HRA Completions

Plans should educate members about the far-reaching benefits of completing the HRA and finding ways to motivate them to complete the survey. Healthmine partners with health plans to conduct the survey via the mail, over the phone and over email to ensure maximum response rates. When paired with smart incentives, plans can motivate even hard-to-reach members, and further health equity work by offering relevant rewards based on a member’s need and zip code.

When implemented correctly, the valuable member data captured in HRAs allows plans to create roadmaps for improving health outcomes.

Partner with Healthmine to Achieve Health Equity

Different racial, ethnic, and SOGI groups may have unique health needs, preferences and risk factors. Understanding these differences, health plans can tailor their services to meet the specific needs of each group, improving health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Our team of expert advisors have decades of experience partnering with health plans to navigate CMS requirements, including within health equity. Contact us to find out how our strategic and tech solutions can facilitate reduction of health disparities.