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Cultural and Social Resources to Enhance Member Care

Date: 09/15/20

A major component of delivering quality health care is treating the whole person and not just the medical condition. Superior HealthPlan and its providers must understand a member’s level of health literacy and language skills, as well as demonstrate sensitivity to differing cultural influences, beliefs and backgrounds in order to communicate effectively. This helps to promote positive health outcomes and member participation with their provider by increasing trust and understanding, and decreasing anxiety associated with health care.

In order to ensure our member’s whole health is considered, please review the following information regarding:

  • Superior language services.
  • Cultural competency.
  • Health Disparities and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).

Superior Language Services

Better cross-cultural and linguistic communications can play a role in reducing health disparities prevalent throughout Texas. Superior estimates that 64.2% of members (across all Medicaid, CHIP, MMP and Ambetter products) prefer English and 35.8% members prefer a language other than English. Of the 35.8% of members who prefer a language other than English, Superior was able to identify the top three languages:

  • Spanish (85.41%)
  • Vietnamese (2.19%)
  • Chinese (1.23%)

The ability to communicate successfully across communication barriers in health care can directly affect a patient’s treatment and/or the outcome of the treatment. Superior provides interpretation services to providers at no cost. To obtain access to a telephonic interpreter, providers can help a member by contacting Member Services, using the phone number located on the back of the member’s Superior ID card or visiting Superior’s Phone Directory.

Cultural Competency

Superior implements the 15 principles of the National Cultural and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards to improve the quality of care provided to all members. CLAS standards assist in promoting and sustaining cultural and linguistic appropriate services to members regardless of socio-cultural or socio-economic status, ethnic background, age, gender, religion, health status, physical and intellectual ability and communication vulnerability. Superior’s Quality Improvement Committees (QIC) assist in ensuring compliance with CLAS standards by working with providers to implement strategies for improving cultural competency.

Providers are encouraged to review the CLAS-related resources below:

For more information on how to be culturally competent, please review the following resources:  

Superior also encourages providers to list their race and ethnicity on the Credentialing Demographics Form. With this information, Superior can match a member’s cultural needs with a provider of the same cultural or ethnic background, to help improve health outcomes.

Health Disparities and SDoH

Superior works to enhance quality of life for members by striving to address health disparities and SDoH. These are factors that may influence a member’s health and well-being, including access to health care and/or basic services, such as housing, food, exercise and medications. To learn more about SDoH, please visit the Centers for Disease Control’s Social Determinants of Health: Know What Affects Health webpage.

Superior utilizes a variety of methods to address health disparities and SDoH and their barriers, such as:

  • Aunt Bertha – This resource helps providers and members quickly and easily search for free or reduced cost services like medical care, food and job training.
  • 2-1-1 Texas – This resource is a free, anonymous social service hotline available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This program, provided by Texas Health and Human Services (HHS), is committed to helping Texas residents connect with the services they need.
    • Providers and members can access services by dialing 2-1-1 or 1-877-541-7905, or online at www.211texas.org.
  • Community Health Workers – These individuals help members successfully navigate through the health-care system, by establishing ongoing outpatient services with primary care providers. They address all access to care and social barriers, and follow up after hospital discharge for a time period of 90 days. This leads to better health outcomes and reduction in potentially preventable ER visits, inpatient admissions and readmissions. 

Superior’s commitment to CLAS and addressing health disparities and SDoH is demonstrated through internal cultural competency, health disparities and SDoH work plans, which focus on various initiatives such as provider and staff trainings, interventions and complaint tracking.

For more information on CLAS standards and addressing health disparities and SDoH, email SHP.HEDIS@SuperiorHealthPlan.com (please mention CC/SDoH in the subject line).