Health equity

The equity journey begins with knowing ourselves, our communities, and the members we serve. 

OhioRISE will listen, learn, and connect to improve conditions by:

1. Listening to understand community needs from those who have first-hand experiences.
2. Using data sets to identify needs and connect to resources.
3. Embedding family voice and choice into all aspects of OhioRISE.

Health information should be accessible to all, so no matter what the situation, an individual can get informed about decisions they need to make to feel and be well. OhioRISE literature provides information to our members about their providers, treatment, and care coordination options so they have opportunities to access care and engage in making changes to improve their quality of life. OhioRISE initiates member engagement to meet our members’ immediate and longer-term social, emotional, and physical needs.

By focusing on health literacy and health equity issues, OhioRISE can improve the accessibility of healthcare services for our members. We advance healthy equity through our education efforts using these best practice guidelines:

• Speaks to me: We incorporate the ideas and first-hand experiences of youth, families, and other stakeholders when developing materials or engaging in communication efforts with OhioRISE targeted audiences. 

• Readability: We provide clear and concise information that is easy to understand for all audiences, while also being mindful of the communication preferences of youth and families. Through our advisory councils, we will seek input from our members, families, and their providers to guide the information we share.

• Picture this: We ensure the images and graphics used in all OhioRISE communications are representative of those we serve. Through our advisory councils, we will seek input from the targeted population to guide image selections.  

• Who benefits: We seek to include messages from relatable peers and early adopters to help convey messages that are engaging, beneficial, and effective.

Accessible communication 

OhioRISE actively works to develop and deliver information in the formats that best work for members:

• Members and providers can access Language Services by contacting 1-833-711-0773 (TTY: 711) at no cost to the member. Representatives are available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

• Members are provided documentation in their preferred language. 

• For individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, our staff are trained to communicate using text telephone (TTY)/telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD).

• Members living with impaired vision are offered materials printed in larger font or braille, as requested.

Our commitment to providers

Everyone has a role to play in eliminating health disparities through intentional and meaningful action. Wherever your organization is on the equity journey, we are here to support you. The OhioRISE Health Equity Specialists and Population Health Specialists are eager to partner with your organization on your health equity improvement initiatives. 

We offer the following:

• Quarterly data sharing (individual, provider specific, social determinants of health and system level).  

• Subject-matter expertise on health disparities and population health needs.

• Health equity training.

• Provider advisory committees. 

• Quality improvement initiatives.

• Community engagement. 

• Analyzing and addressing gaps in care.

• Translation services.

• Support for closed-loop social determinants of health (SDOH) referrals. 

Our PAC is made up of representatives from the OhioRISE provider network. The PAC meets quarterly to:

• Share perspectives on how we can better serve our members.

• Provide expert council to improve access, provider satisfaction and connection to specialty providers.

• Review satisfaction survey results. 

• Review quality improvement strategies.

• Provide actionable feedback on policies and programs to improve care for our members.

• Examine and implement improvement strategies related to addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) gaps.

We also help providers understand and act on member, provider, and systemic data to improve the quality of care and increase patient satisfaction. To better understand the needs of each community, we work with providers to track their data and analyze from a regional perspective with the goal of identifying areas of improvement, such as provider education and training. 

Strengthening provider relationships with patients is essential to improve health equity. OhioRISE supports providers as they establish trust with the youth and families we serve by:

• Recruiting, promoting and supporting a culturally and linguistically diverse provider workforce that is responsive to the population in the service area.

• Training organization staff to engage in improving health equity, which includes an understanding of unconscious bias, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), social determinants of health (SDOH), health disparities, structural racism, and culturally and linguistically appropriate practices.

• Ensuring that providers work with their members to operationalize the availability of language assistance services in the members preferred language, verbally and in writing.

• Sharing information on the languages contracted providers speak fluently.

• Ensuring all provider forms align with best practice standards for inclusion.

• Providing education, referral and/or support for those who needed services outside of traditional business hours.

• Providing follow-up with members and families to ensure linkage with social determinants of health (SDOH) resource(s) was successful. 

Improving health starts by ensuring youth and families have basic information about the healthcare services available to them, how those services can help, and how they can access the care they need in a timely fashion. OhioRISE communicated this information with our members through a combination of in-person, telephonic and virtual methods, including:  

• Community engagement events.

• Focus groups.

• Social media.

• New-member welcome calls.

• Virtual applications.

• Telehealth.

Coming Soon

Coming Soon

All seven managed care organizations, OhioRISE, and Gainwell became the foundational members of the All-MCE Health Equity Collaborative in 2021 to holistically meet the needs of the community with a keen focus to keep the member at the center of all efforts. The All-MCE Health Equity Collaborative was developed to share best practices, resources, and collectively develop innovative solutions to address barriers Medicaid members experience. This collaborative effort will address the need of Medicaid members across Ohio while supporting statewide initiatives across Ohio.