AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana Earns Multicultural Health Care Distinction

AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, a Healthy Louisiana Medicaid managed care health plan and part of the AmeriHealth Caritas Family of Companies, announced that it has earned the Multicultural Health Care Distinction from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana is one of seven AmeriHealth Caritas Medicaid managed care health plans to hold the Multicultural Health Care Distinction.

AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana offers the following services, among others, to serve the diverse needs of its membership:

-Face-to-face cultural competency training for its network providers.

-Targeted outreach to Spanish-speaking members for participation in the health plan’s Member Advisory Council (MAC).--

-Having an interpreter at MAC meetings.

-Communicating with members in their preferred language.

“It is an honor to be recognized for our success in removing cultural and linguistic barriers to care,” said AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana Market President Kyle Viator. “As a Medicaid plan, we serve people of many different race, ethnic, and language backgrounds, and it is important that we be able to meet all of their diverse health care needs. I am proud of the work our associates do every day to help ensure our members receive the care and services that are most appropriate for them.”

NCQA awards Multicultural Health Care Distinction to organizations that meet or exceed its rigorous requirements for multicultural health care. The distinction program evaluates how well an organization complies with standards in the following areas:

-Collection of race/ethnicity and language data.

-Provision of language assistance.

-Cultural responsiveness.

-Quality improvement of culturally and linguistically appropriate services.

-Reduction of health care disparities.

NCQA’s Multicultural Health Care Distinction Report Card lists health care entities holding Multicultural Health Care Distinction at: https://reportcards.ncqa.org/#/other-health-care-organizations/list?program=Multicultural%20Health%20Care.

“Cultural competency is crucial to providing high quality health care,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA president. “Organizations achieving Multicultural Health Care Distinction are leaders in closing the ethnic and racial disparities gap, and NCQA commends them for their dedication.”

NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information for consumers, purchasers, health care providers, and researchers.

 

07/20/2017