Medicaid members face unequivocal challenges in achieving high quality of life due to low-household income and complex health conditions. Persistent inequities exist within the Medicaid population, and successfully engaging these communities in such a diverse socioeconomic environment requires significant cultural sensitivity to heal the decades of distrust sown by generations of culturally insensitive treatment and trauma cycles. The multilayer nature of the healthcare system masks accountability for health equity.

The fragmented approaches by policymakers, payers, and providers to identify and address health inequities has resulted in uncoordinated, sometimes competitive, efforts to implement effective solutions. While extraordinary in their own right, entities that coordinate with other sectors of the system improve the impact and efficacy of these activities.

Join this dynamic “Ask the Experts” panel to discuss Arizona Medicaid’s experience from the perspectives of a Managed Care Organization, an Integrated Provider Agency, a Performance Improvement expert, and a Medicaid provider-incentive program administrator. Each of these experts will briefly describe the purpose, successes, and challenges of their innovative programs and discuss opportunities (planned and realized) for inter-sector collaboration to enrich data, support providers, and engage the community. Extensive time will be reserved for questions and discussion.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how the strengths and weaknesses that each Arizona healthcare sector experiences in identifying and addressing health inequities relates to their healthcare system environment, and
2. Employ best practices to collaborate and streamline related activities with their population and stakeholders.