Commitment to Health Equity Continues
Applies to: All markets
Your health shouldn’t depend on the color of your skin or the neighborhood you live in. But unfortunately, minorities often experience a lower quality of health care.
As we continue our work here in New Jersey to address health care disparities so all of our members can achieve their best health, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) is now joining the national effort to confront the nation’s crisis in racial health disparities. We are partnering with other Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) to announce the National Health Equity Strategy.
This multi-year effort focuses on four conditions that disproportionately affect communities of color: maternal health, behavioral health, diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.
Where we are
Health care disparities related to race and social barriers to accessing care are a continued focus. To date, Horizon BCBSNJ has:
- Deployed the Horizon Neighbors in Health program, the most comprehensive effort yet in New Jersey to help members living in underserved communities overcome Social Determinants of Health and achieve their best health. This program leverages the power of collaborating health systems, community health workers, personal health assistants, predicative analytics and technology to help get members the resources they need.
- Directed 80 percent of The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey’s financial support and grants to organizations that support people of color and address health disparities, access to health care services, and prevention and education for major diseases such as obesity and opioid misuse.
- Worked with the Advancing Health Equity Learning Collaborative, since 2019, to integrate health care delivery and payment reforms to reduce health care disparities. This is a first-of-its-kind partnership that created a new model to remove racial disparities in maternal-child health, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS) and RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH).
Moving forward
We are committed to making additional improvements, but we cannot do this alone. We invite others — industry leaders, stakeholders and policymakers — to join us in this critical work. Together, we can affect meaningful, measurable progress to achieve health equity.
To learn more about the National Health Equity Strategy and Maternal Health Program, visit BlueHealthEquity.com.