Skip to Main Content

Health Equity

With the increasing diversity of the United States’ population, physicians are more and more likely to encounter situations that require the delivery of culturally competent care, access to a vast array of language services and supportive healthcare organizations.

Any health and healthcare organization addressing mental, social, spiritual and physical well-being can benefit from the adoption and implementation of the National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. The standards aim to advance health equity, improve quality and help eliminate healthcare disparities by providing a framework for implementing culturally and linguistically (language) appropriate services throughout an organization.

Free Services for Provider Offices’ Use

Sunflower Health Plan is committed to ensuring the linguistic needs and cultural differences of our members are met and provides an array of services through internal sources and external partnerships.

  • Access to individuals who are trained, professional interpreters. Sunflower offers face-to-face or telephonic interpreter services that may be arranged through Customer Service. We requests a five-day prior notification for face-to-face services. This includes interpretation for spoken languages as well as for hearing impairment. All providers (medical, behavioral, pharmacy, etc.) can call Customer Service at toll free 1-877-644-4623 TTY: 711 to help arrange interpreter services.
  • Over-the-phone interpreter services are available 24/7, in approximately 150 languages, to help providers and members communicate with each other when there are no other translators available for the language. Also, TTY access is available to members who are hearing impaired. All providers (medical, behavioral, pharmacy, etc.) can call Customer Service at toll free 1-877-644-4623 TTY: 711 to help arrange interpreter services.
  • The free Sunflower 24/7 Nurse Advice Line can help members with medical questions and triage care. Call toll free 1-877-644-4623 TTY: 711.
  • Community Health Services helps Sunflower members that need social services to facilitate successful medical treatment. Call toll free 1-877-644-4623 TTY: 711.

  • Think Cultural Health is dedicated to advancing health equity at every point of contact.
  • Kansas Department of Health and Environment Health Equity works to improve health outcomes for Kansas's culturally diverse populations through a vision of health equity for all Kansans. Their website includes training, reports and resources. 
  • Health Reources and Services Administration offers health literacy tools for providers to address the unique culture, language and health literacy of diverse consumers and communities. 
  • CLAS in Maternal Health Care On-Demand Training helps guide maternal healthcare professionals by training them on delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS). This free, two-hour e-learning program is designed for providers seeking knowledge and skills related to cultural competency, cultural humility, person-centered care and combating implicit bias across the continuum of maternal healthcare.
  • You can use our Language Assistance page to identify a patient's language. Sunflower provides interpretation for all members in whatever language they prefer.
  • Teach-Back Training - Learn about the teach-back method, a research-based health literacy intervention that improves patient-provider communication and patient health outcomes.

Health Literacy Toolkit (PDF) - Use the tools, assessments and resources to improve your practice, raise awareness and target specific areas in your organization to improve the health outcomes and experience for your patients. 

Health Equity Reports

Sunflower Health Plan earned Health Equity Accreditation in 2023 through the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). NCQA Health Equity accreditation gives healthcare organizations an actionable framework for improving health equity. NCQA provides Standards and Guidelines for Health Equity Accreditation. Here the Standards for Health Equity that must be maintained for our accreditation status:

  • HE 1: Organizational Readiness
    • Element A: Building a Diverse Staff
    • Element B: Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Among
      Staff
  • HE 2: Race/Ethnicity, Language, Gender Identity and Sexual
    Orientation Data
    • Element A: Systems for Individual-Level Data
    • Element B: Collection of Data on Race/Ethnicity
    • Element C: Collection of Data on Language
    • Element D: Collection of Data on Gender Identity
    • Element E: Collection of Data on Sexual Orientation
    • Element F: Privacy Protections for Data
    • Element G: Notification of Privacy Protections
  • HE 3: Access and Availability of Language Services
    • Element A: Written Documents
    • Element B: Spoken Language Services
    • Element C: Support for Language Service
    • Element D: Notification of Language Services
  • HE 4: Practitioner Network Cultural Responsiveness
    • Element A: Assessment and Availability of Information
    • Element B: Enhancing Network Responsiveness
  • HE 5: Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
    Programs
    • Element A: Program Description
    • Element B: Annual Evaluation
  • HE 6: Reducing Health Care Disparities
    • Element A: Reporting Stratified Measures
    • Element B: Use of Data to Assess Disparities
    • Element C: Use of Data to Monitor and Assess Services
    • Element D: Use of Data to Measure CLAS and Disparities
  • HE 7: Delegation of Health Equity Activities
    • Element A: Delegation Agreement
    • Element B: Predelegation Evaluation
    • Element C: Review of Performance
    • Element D: Opportunities for Improvement

Through our NCQA accreditation, Health Equity (HE) Standard 6, Reducing Health Care Disparities, Element A, reporting Stratified Measures, requires Sunflower to monitor and evaluate the following HEDIS measures:

  • Colorectal Cancer Screening (COL)
  • Controlling High Blood Pressure (CBP)
  • Hemoglobin A1C Control for Patients with Diabetes (HBD)
  • Prenatal and Postpartum Care (PPC)
  • Child and Adolescent Well Care Visits (WCV)

HEDIS measures related to HE 6 Element A, which addresses reducing healthcare disparities, is important as healthcare organizations continue to identify and close gaps in care across various populations, especially in underrepresented or underserved groups. We use member data (race, ethnicity, language, gender identity) to assess the existence of disparities and to focus quality improvement efforts toward improving the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services and decreasing health care disparities.

What is HEDIS®?

HEDIS® (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) is a set of standardized performance measures developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to objectively measure, report, and compare quality across health plans. NCQA develops HEDIS® measures through a committee represented by purchasers, consumers, health plans, healthcare providers, and policy makers.

What are the scores used for?

As state and federal governments move toward a quality-driven healthcare industry, HEDIS® rates are becoming more important for both health plans and individual providers. State purchasers of healthcare use aggregated HEDIS® rates to evaluate health insurance companies’ efforts to improve preventive health outreach for members.

Each quarter, we will publish the most current stratified data here to share our progress.