Reference Library

Our shared customers – our members, your patients – are our neighbors, relatives, and classmates of our children. It is imperative that we work together as a team, with the common goal of helping to support the best possible outcomes.  Below are a few categories of resources you may find helpful to reduce health inequities and SDoH in your practice. We’ll be adding more resources throughout 2020. Check back often for the latest updates.

Diabetes

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Addressing Health Disparities in Diabetes 

Hypertension

• American Heart Association (AHA): High Blood Pressure Toolkit 
• American Medical Association (AMA) Target:BP™: Accurate Blood Pressure Reading for Race & Ethnicity Data Collection Essentials 
• CDC Million Hearts: Hypertension Control Change Package for Clinicians  
• Release the Pressure  A coalition of national health care professional organizations and heart health experts with a shared goal of partnering with Black women to support their heart health

Maternal and Infant Health

• ACOG Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM)  The AIM program offers different maternal safety bundles that include action measures. Each safety bundle represents best practices for maternity care.
• Centering Healthcare Institute: CenteringPregnancy^®  an evidence-based group prenatal care model led by a healthcare provider that brings women of similar gestational age together in a group setting for their care. For more information, read the New Program to Increase Access to Maternal and Infant Health Care Among Vulnerable Communities article in our March 2020 Blue Review. Update (June 2020): The CenteringPregnancy program continues to move forward but has had to remain fluid in its timeline due to the impact of COVID-19 on providers and the CenteringHealth Institute. CenteringPregnancy site locations and related information will be posted here once details are confirmed. Also watch the Blue Review for updates, later this year.
• March of Dimes: Premature Birth Report Card  The 2019 prematurity grades are assigned by comparing the 2018 preterm birth rate to March of Dimes' goal of 8.1 percent by 2020. Illinois received a D+ with a 10.7% preterm birth rate.
• Safer Childbirth Cities Initiative  If you missed the March 4, 2020, webinar BCBSIL presented in collaboration with Merck for Mothers, AllianceChicago and EverThrive Illinois, feel free to watch the recording.

Literacy

• American Family Physician: Health Literacy in Primary Care Practice  An American Academy of Family Physicians' health literacy resource for the primary care practice includes assessment tools, interventions and recommendations for enhancing communication with patients. 
• Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards  The National CLAS Standards are a set of 15 action steps intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate health care disparities by providing a blueprint for individuals and health and health care organizations to implement culturally and linguistically appropriate services.

Community Resources

• 211  is a comprehensive source of local social services information in the U.S. and most of Canada. Reach out to 211 to speak with a community resource specialist in your area who can help you find services and resources that are available to you locally and provide critical services that can improve, and save, lives.

Gathering Data

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool  The CMS Office of Minority Health has designed an interactive map, the Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool, to identify areas of disparities between subgroups of Medicare beneficiaries (e.g., racial and ethnic groups) n health outcomes, utilization and spending.
• Chicago Health Atlas  The Chicago Health Atlas provides health-related data that can be reviewed, explored and compared over time and across communities.

Other Resources

• Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Health Equity Strategy 
• Howard Brown Health 
• Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity 

CenteringPregnancy is a trademark of Centering Healthcare Institute.

The above material is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for the independent medical judgment of a physician or other health care provider. Physicians and other health care providers are encouraged to use their own medical judgment based upon all available information and the condition of the patient in determining the appropriate course of treatment. References to third party sources or organizations are not a representation, warranty or endorsement of such organizations. Any questions regarding those organizations should be addressed to them directly. The fact that a service or treatment is described in this material is not a guarantee that the service or treatment is a covered benefit and members should refer to their certificate of coverage for more details, including benefits, limitations and exclusions. Regardless of benefits, the final decision about any service or treatment is between the member and their health care provider.