Addressing health disparities across our state is more important than ever. As we begin the process of launching a Health Equity program at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS), we want to take the guesswork out of our decision-making. We’re using data to guide our efforts, providing clear insights into which populations are most at risk, where gaps in care exist, and which interventions will make the biggest difference. By harnessing the power of data, we don’t need to guess because we can make targeted, informed decisions that help us have the greatest possible impact on our members’ health.
By using data, we’re able to better understand the health challenges facing our members. Additionally, when we break the data down by unique populations, we’re able to see which groups of people are having health-related issues and work to address them. Finally, data allows us to monitor our work to ensure we are adequately addressing the problem.
Understanding members’ health challenges
Nationally, there is a concerted public health effort focused on maternal health equity – and for good reason. National data shows that cases of severe maternal health outcomes, or life-threatening complications, have been rising, and perhaps most alarming, there has been an increase in deaths associated with these events.
However, just because something is happening at a national level, or even in Kansas, does not mean we should assume that it occurs for BCBSKS members. Using internal data allows us to answer this question. Working together, the BCBSKS Health Analytics and Health Equity teams determined that severe maternal events do happen within BCBSKS membership, although at a slightly lower level than national rates. Even though these events occur less often than more common health events, they are quite costly.
Looking at the bigger picture
Data paints a picture, but without breaking the data down to unique populations, the picture is often incomplete. We know that some mothers within the BCBSKS membership experience negative maternal health outcomes, but is it all mothers or are certain mothers more at risk? What trends emerge for the mothers experiencing severe maternal health issues?
Working again with the BCBSKS Health Analytics team and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, we identified some patterns among the maternal health events. For example, Black and Hispanic mothers are more likely to experience a severe maternal health event at the time of delivery. We also discovered that being diagnosed with anemia during pregnancy leads to an increased risk of several potential maternal health challenges, especially in pregnancies among Black, Hispanic, and Asian mothers.
Breaking down this data by population, or stratifying, allows us to prioritize strategies to improve our members’ health. There are a wide variety of interventions and solutions that can be implemented for any given health issue. Without seeing the full picture, it is difficult to know which interventions to prioritize. Thanks to data analysis, we know that any intervention that can integrate a focus on anemia will likely be beneficial for our population as a whole and for Black, Hispanic and Asian mothers.
Track progress and celebrate success
Data can also be beneficial for tracking outcomes to ensure progress is being made. There’s never enough time in the day, so we want to make sure the solutions we’re putting into place are beneficial. By setting specific and appropriate performance measures, we’re able to track our success and know if we need to make any adjustments to our plan to better meet our goals. If our members’ health isn’t improving, we’re not doing our job.
To ensure we are adequately monitoring progress, the BCBSKS Health Equity team is working with our Quality Management Committee to develop data-informed metrics to track progress on our maternal health equity efforts. Working with the QMC will allow us to monitor progress, make improvements as needed and celebrate our successes when they occur.
What’s next?
Having access to data is crucial to the success of our Health Equity program. Uncovering health-related trends requires that we understand the demographic makeup of our membership, but you might be surprised to know that we don’t really have that full picture today. To have access to a more robust source of demographic data, BCBSKS is working diligently to develop a way for members to report their demographic information directly to us. This project is in the works, and we hope to share more information with you later this year.