Ensuring Health Equity at Upward Health
Our core foundation and clinical model are centered around personalized care for the whole person. At Upward Health, many of our patients are low-income and from underserved communities, so they face frequent challenges in ensuring equitable access to care. Additionally, we serve many patients in Health Professional Shortage Areas ranging from urban to rural settings. Due to this, we focus on intentionally working towards achieving health equity.
Nuzhat Quaderi, MPH, CHES
Director, Centralized Operations
“Our steadfast commitment to health equity is core to who we are and is a pillar of our care model and day-to-day work of our team,” said Nuzhat Quaderi, MPH, CHES. “By addressing health disparities and removing barriers like limited access to care, lack of transportation, and insufficient access to food, we give our patients the opportunity to achieve their individual health goals so they can live happier and healthier lives.”
We activate on ensuring health equity through our operating model and patient care delivery. To standardize our approach, we adopted the CMS Framework for Health Equity Priorities to guide our efforts. Below you will see how CMS defines each priority and our efforts to achieve them.
CMS Priority 1: Expand the collection, reporting, and analysis of standardized data.
Upward Health’s Efforts:
Information on race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, and sexual orientation is gathered on every patient. In addition, patients complete a 30-question assessment on the social determinants of health, which factors into risk stratification and care planning.
CMS Priority 2: Assess causes of disparities within CMS programs, and address inequities in policies and operations to close gaps.
Upward Health’s Efforts:
We have patients complete a variety of assessments which focus on access to care and identifiable causes of health disparity. We also collaborate with health plans to align with their care management resources.
CMS Priority 3: Build capacity of health care organizations and the workforce to reduce health and health care disparities.
Upward Health’s Efforts:
Our staff is local, reflective of our patients, and in and of the community where we serve. This builds a foundation of trust and a strong relationship between the patient and their Upward Health Care Team. We closely monitor outcomes for a range of quality markers across ethnic groups to ensure disparities are not present.
CMS Priority 4: Advance language access, health literacy, and the provisions of culturally tailored services.
Upward Health’s Efforts:
We employ multilingual Care Specialists who are trained in motivational interviewing and patient-centered health coaching. Our services are tailored to each individual according to need so results are equally impressive across any measurement. We also closely monitor and compare outcomes for patients reporting different primary languages.
CMS Priority 5: Increase all forms of accessibility to health care services and coverage.
Upward Health’s Efforts:
We are dedicated to in-home, community-centered care focused on providing access to the most vulnerable and disengaged patients. Our patient populations include those struggling with intellectual/developmental disability, functional decline and fragility, serious mental illness, and substance use.
We activate on ensuring health equity through our operating model and patient care delivery. To standardize our approach, we adopted the CMS Framework for Health Equity Priorities to guide our efforts. Below you will see how CMS defines each priority and our efforts to achieve them.