• More than 27 percent of adults report having no usual source of care. African-American (28 percent), Hispanic (51 percent), and Asian (23 percent) adults are all more likely to report not having a usual doctor.
• Uninsured adults are disproportionately young or minorities; 82 percent are between 19 and 49 years of age, and 41 percent identify themselves as Black, Hispanic, or Other.
• American Indian and Alaskan Native death rates from sudden infant death syndrome are the highest of any population groups.
• Asian Americans have the highest tuberculosis rates of any racial and ethnic population.
• Adults who have not finished high school are almost two times more likely than college graduates to be obese.

None of these realities should be allowed to continue. So we have made the fight to end health disparities a key part of our social mission.

The work in this area is multifaceted. It involves identifying and measuring existing disparities in both health and health care, and devising solutions that support equity in health nationwide, including universal health coverage.

In 2009, we successfully created a quality assessment tool that measures disparities in clinical quality for select measures of both inpatient and outpatient care. Having better information about where these gaps exist enables us to address them systematically within the Kaiser Permanente care delivery system, through partnerships and by sharing our learnings.

Because of our efforts to reach across cultural and language barriers to provide our members with care that meets their unique needs, we have been awarded the prestigious Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care Award by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

“Kaiser Permanente’s innovative efforts to improve care for its culturally diverse members is a model for the nation and other health plans across the country,” said NCQA President Margaret E.O’Kane.“One in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home. Racial and ethnic differences result in substantial health disparities for millions. It’s imperative that more plans follow Kaiser Permanente’s lead.”

Our Centers of Excellence in Culturally Competent Care are working models of health care delivery for our diverse membership. Our nine centers across the country demonstrate how trained staff members have respectfully integrated knowledge and sensitivity to issues of culture, race, and ethnicity into all patient encounters.

Additionally, faced with an increasing demand for onsite qualified health care interpreters, we created the Qualified Bilingual Staff Model. This model identifies, educates, and monitors an internal workforce of interpreters as a key strategy to strengthen culturally competent communications with our members.

In Atlanta, the Morehouse School of Medicine is the nation’s first medical school established at a historically black college and university in the 20th Century. Its Satcher Health Leadership Institute, named for former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, was awarded a 2009 grant for $500,000 to help develop a workforce leadership program that will reduce health disparities by creating an integrated approach to primary care and mental health.

The grant supports the development of effective policies and practices to remedy the causes of health disparities, to improve access to care, and to advance the integration of mental and primary health care. This initiative will also create partnerships between mental and primary health care providers to enable them to more effectively diagnose and treat mental health conditions.

In 2009, Kaiser Permanente awarded $5.2 million to the UCLA School of Public Health to establish the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. The center is dedicated to improving the health of underserved populations through research, community collaboration, and leadership development. With this backing, the center can become a local and national leader in addressing disparities.

“Until now, the center has lacked the core support necessary to most effectively address the unacceptable gaps in health status among some in our communities,” said Dean of the UCLA School of Public Health Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH. “This generous funding from Kaiser Permanente will enable the center to expand its ability to bring critical resources and attention to communities with the greatest needs.”

Our nine Centers of excellence in Culturally Competent Care across the country are working models of health care delivery for our diverse membership.