Addressing DM, health disparities for minorities merges pers

I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm glad that this month's cover feature and Health Care section highlight reporting on how employers can craft effective disease management programs and help address health disparities among minority employees. I think both topics are important issues that truthfully have gone too long without being brought to light in this venue.

As an African-American woman, I've unfortunately been a victim of health care discrimination, and I've seen first-hand how provider bias can affect the access to and quality of health care for minorities. On a professional level, I believe that, as benefits professionals, you are the linchpin for employees, employers, physicians, hospitals and insurers that can unite benefits stakeholders and make a meaningful difference in the care that all employees receive.

That said, I admit I was dismayed when I read research cited in Associate Editor Kathleen Koster's report on addressing health disparities: To improve access, first increase awareness. The report cites research from a survey of more than 1,500 benefit managers by the Washington Business Group on Health, which found that nearly half believe that ethnic health care disparities "weren't a problem" for their employees, although 80% had never asked minority employees if their race affected their health care.

At the same time, however, I believe that when people know better, they do better. As caring, committed professionals, surely you wouldn't knowingly sit by as a segment of your workforce received low-quality care — especially when you pay the same amount in premiums, regardless! So I am happy to bring you Koster's article, and Managing Editor Leah Carlson Shepherd's feature, Minority report, as a way of breaking the ice on discussing a persistent problem you likely did not know existed.

Among the statistics cited in the two reports:

• White doctors perceived black patients as more likely than white patients to abuse drugs and alcohol, to be unintelligent and uneducated, and to fail to comply with medical advice.
• Minorities have more communication problems with doctors and tend to feel, more so than whites, those physicians treat them with disrespect.

African-Americans, who represent 13% of the U.S. population, are disproportionally impacted by diabetes, cancer, heart disease and stroke, and in 2001, African-Americans with diabetes were more than twice as likely to die than white Americans with the disease.

In addition, 23% of American Indian or Alaska Native adults and 19% of black adults had fair or poor health, compared with 11% of white adults.

All of these data points are troubling enough, but when factored in with quickly changing workforce demographics and the recessive economy, they are downright alarming for employers and need to be dealt with immediately.

"When you look at the demographics and the sheer numbers of growth that are projected for the years to come, employers realize that they have to stay ahead of the curve in meeting the needs of their employees," Corliss Hill, national director of business development for United Healthcare's Generations of Wellness campaign, told Koster.

Part of meeting those needs is making sure all workers receive the high-quality care they deserve and that you're paying for. While it's clearly critical to select the right insurer and broker/consultant to help you achieve the best benefit, we all know that it often is the communication and engagement efforts that you make within your company that can make or break this type of outreach campaign.

After you read Koster's and Shepherd's reports, I look forward to starting an ongoing dialogue with you about your past, present and future efforts to eliminate health disparities among your workforce, including the best practices and lessons learned you have to share.