L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, recently announced that the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) awarded it a Health Equity Accreditation with a score of 98%. Health Equity Accreditation gives healthcare organizations an actionable framework for improving health equity. It focuses on work that builds on an internal culture, which supports the health plan’s external health equity work, all in an effort to identify opportunities to reduce health inequities.
The NCQA scored health plans in seven categories on data collected over a 12- to 36-month period.
The categories include:
Organizational Readiness
Race/Ethnicity, Language, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Data
Access and Availability of Language Services
Practitioner Network Cultural Responsiveness
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services and Programs
Reducing Health Care Disparities
Delegation of Health Equity Activities
L.A. Care received a perfect score in six of the categories, and near perfect in the seventh. The achievement illustrates L.A. Care’s commitment to health equity, which means the fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.