Exploring Lessons Learned During the AMCP Summit: Addressing Health Disparities

Addressing inequities in health is important to us all, and AMCP added its voice to this topic in a significant way. It was a pleasure for me to be the moderator of this inaugural AMCP Summit on Addressing Health Disparities. As part of an underserved community, and growing up in Harlem, N.Y., I was heartened to see the vision of AMCP and the Summit contributors lean into the issues I know are important in a meaningful and actionable way. The individuals representing many stakeholder groups such as physicians, advocacy, pharma, researchers, and managed care, were all passionate promoters of the need to find solutions to effectively drive health equity. Numerous important takeaways emerged from the Summit, but a few stood out to me as being particularly effective in allowing managed care organizations to affect consequential change in a way that benefits both our society and their business. Managed care organizations can: 

• Build relationships with the communities they operate in and serve. These relationships can give back to the communities in a way that meet residents’ greatest needs. On a macro level, companies can become known as a contributor to the overall health of the community, which can be accomplished through the support of health fairs, food banks, housing projects, community gardens, and the like. On a micro level, managed care organizations can ensure their members have access to care, by increasing education through trusted voices in places where residents congregate and have access to medications by ensuring that management utilization criteria do not pose a barrier to novel therapies.  
• Follow the model of the AMCP Summit and bring together health care stakeholders in roundtables or workshops to jointly develop solutions. The discussions between payers, physicians, patients/consumer groups, etc., typically yield new and exciting ideas that are actionable. The foundation I lead — The Make Well Known Foundation — has initiated just this type of initiative. The Community Health Builders program conducts multi-sector roundtables in selected underserved communities to understand the residents’ most pressing needs, identify, and execute educational opportunities that are focused on these critical needs.    
• Develop and track metrics on all activities conducted. Data will allow all organizations to work toward success goals and modify as required to get there.  

I believe we are all accountable for alleviating health disparities and that participating in the Summit was a first step in committing to this lofty goal. Driving equity is dependent on each of us, in every organization. What organizations can do from here include: 

• Share your successes and challenges with AMCP; by learning from each other’s experiences, we can more effectively drive toward meaningful solutions. 
• Join future Health Disparities Summits and report your progress.   
• Small steps, compounded by many, can make measurable and long-lasting change.  

Make a commitment to engage your communities in macro and micro ways. The time for action is now!