Managed Care Research in Action

(R2) Challenges and Opportunities in Collecting Data to Address Health Disparities

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

10:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Location: B4

ACPE UAN:0233-0000-23-004-L99-P | Contact Hours: 1.25 | Activity Type: Knowledge-based

Faculty(s)

Christopher Diehl, PharmD, MBA, BCACP (he/him/his)

Manager, Clinical Pharmacy Programs
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield
Rochester, NY
Hannah Lee-Brown, PharmD, CPHQ

Director, Pharmacy Benefits
Healthfirst
Long Island City, NY
Thomas C. Pomfret, PharmD, MPH, BCPS (he/him/his)

Clinical Consultant Pharmacist Team Lead, Residency Program Director
ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School
Shrewsbury, MA

Moderator(s)

VD

Vyishali Dharbhamalla, PharmD

Senior Manager, Professional Affairs
AMCP
Alexandria, Virginia

The task of tackling health disparities has risen to a top priority as research continues to reveal the staggering extent of health disparities in our nation. It has become increasingly clear that addressing these disparities is essential to improve the nation's overall health outcomes and reduce unnecessary health care costs.

To facilitate addressing health disparities, organizations need specific data so they are better equipped to serve their patients. Data collection is not always easy, and it is difficult to know what data is meaningful and how best to use it. When considering health disparities, information on race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data, sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data, social determinants of health data, disability, and geography data are useful.

This session will discuss the types of data used to identify health disparities and, using case studies, how best to use this data to address disparities. In addition, other methods that managed care organizations can use to address disparities will be discussed.

Learning Objectives::

At the completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

Identify the types of patient data that can have a meaningful impact on addressing health disparities and the rationale.
List challenges and opportunities in collecting race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data, sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) data, social determinants of health data, disability, and geography data.
Through case examples, summarize at least two strategies to facilitate data collection for addressing health disparities.
Summarize other strategies that managed care organizations can implement that can also address health disparities.