Advocate for and Invest in Health Equity
Raising the Bar’s five principles provide the foundation for transformational action by healthcare payers, providers, and other organizations. This section focuses on healthcare’s role as an ADVOCATE, including the essential role payers and other organizations play in facilitating the provision of healthcare, and outlines concrete actions, each with a commitment that healthcare can make to advance equity and excellence, and a set of tactical strategies.
Concrete Actions for the Advocate
Healthcare’s economic resources and influence can be harnessed as positive forces for payment reform, community well-being and resilience, and equity.
Action 1: Actively push for and adopt payment reforms, especially reforms that align investments with the mission of improving health and well-being
- Develop, support, and participate in payment systems that align incentives, measures, and accountability systems toward the advancement of health, well-being, equity, and service to the community.
- Work toward practices and payment systems that emphasize efficiency and high-value care so that resources can be available for the full range of Raising the Bar Actions.
- Advocate for public payment system reforms to advance transformation in line with the Raising the Bar Principles.
- Even while broad public policy debates evolve on payment reform, take immediate and constructive steps in the private sector.
- Healthcare payers should accelerate innovation in their own payment models (as private payers or plans).
- Healthcare providers should actively seek and participate in models and systems that advance their mission of improving the health of individuals and communities and advancing health equity, and that can be monitored and evaluated for their impact on health equity.
- Stakeholders should seek payment reforms that allow them to align their practices with what patients have identified as priorities, including access to and time with their providers and a respectful care environment.
Action 2: Use healthcare’s voice to shape public understanding about the importance of health equity and dismantling racism and all forms of discrimination
- Acknowledge historic and current patterns of racism in healthcare and society, and their impact, which is essential to achieving equity.
- Promote values of equity, inclusion, and antiracism through both internal and external communications.
- Demonstrate that real change is possible by uplifting examples of successful work to address inequities and their root causes.
- Support community organizations and public health entities by highlighting their importance, partnering with them, and building their visibility.
- Use reputation and credibility to help shape public opinion, to “change hearts,” and to advance health equity.
Action 3: Use power and influence to advocate for health equity in the development and implementation of public policies
- Establish mechanisms for engaging the community in defining advocacy priorities and strategies to ensure that advocacy is responsive to the needs and priorities of those who live, work, and play in the areas where healthcare providers, payers, and organizations operate.
- Use government relations capacity, access to legislators and their influencers, and other mechanisms to advocate for the adoption of policies focused on improving the health and well-being of those who have been historically disadvantaged, as well as paying continued attention to the effective implementation of those policies.
- Provide important insight into the health consequences of housing, transportation, and environmental justice public policy and motivating action in areas beyond the immediate control of the healthcare sector.
- Advocate for sustainable funding for the public health sector and public health infrastructure to protect communities against health threats and improve community health and resilience. Partner with public health to advance health and well-being.
- Engage with individuals and organizations in the community and lend support and capabilities to grassroots organizing and advocacy for the advancement of equitable public policies.
- Advocate and invest in the broader technology and data infrastructure needed to enable cross-sector, holistic approaches to advancing health equity.
Action 4: Use investment and procurement power to contribute to the health and resilience of communities
- Invest in the economic development of the community by prioritizing local purchasing, and by taking other steps to create wealth in communities that have experienced the effects of historic or ongoing marginalization and disinvestment.
- Invest in addressing adverse social determinants of health by providing direct funding for initiatives and partnerships that increase affordable housing supply, access to quality foods, reliable and affordable transportation, neighborhood physical and environmental safety, and more.
- Disinvest in financial relationships or ventures that perpetuate discrimination to demonstrate a commitment to equity.
Raising the Bar for Maternal Health: The Advocate Role
To achieve maternal health equity, healthcare institutions must advocate for and invest in maternal health equity whole-person care.
What does this look like? Hospitals, health systems, independent women’s health and multi-specialty provider groups, and FQHCs:
- Advocate for maternity care delivery and payment reforms that align resources and incentives with achieving maternal health equity, and incorporate effective models into your system.
- Incorporate into your advocacy strategies advancing public policies that address the social drivers that undermine maternal health.
- Use investment and procurement power: Audit and adjust your business model, investment and purchasing strategies, and philanthropy to improve communities’ maternal health and overall resilience.
Get started with the newly released Raising the Bar for Maternal Health Equity and Excellence guidance.
Watch: How Advocates Can Influence Healthcare to Advance Equity
Featuring leaders from the National Partnership for Women & Families, Michigan Health Improvement Alliance, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The Advocate Role in Practice
The following set of vignettes highlight examples of organizations already advancing efforts in line with those actions outlined in the ADVOCATE role.