Vantage Health Technologies Reveals Data on the State of U.S. Health Equity

Survey of almost 200 payers and providers finds health equity is a priority, but roadblocks remain

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vantage Health Technologies a part of the BroadReach Group, a global social enterprise with nearly two decades of experience combining technology innovation with deep healthcare expertise, today announced the results of its first annual State of U.S. Health Equity Survey. The survey found that while the industry sees health equity as incredibly important, there are few tangible steps and plans in place to address it.

In June and July of 2022, Vantage Health Technologies surveyed nearly 200 (192) executives and senior decision-makers within payers, providers and other healthcare stakeholders to understand how organizations address health inequities within their plans. The results found that while 95% of respondents believe that health equity is important for their organization to address, nearly half (43.5%) of the respondents said their organization has no roadmap to address health equity across their people, process and technology. Additionally, 45.3% have only a partial or ad hoc roadmap plan. Of them, 53% are unsure if it will be a priority in the next 12-18 months. Surprisingly, only 8% said that it would be a priority.

Additional top findings are as follows:

• 43.8% of those surveyed don't know if they have any race, ethnicity or language data on their care population, and only 4.2% have this data on 75-100% of their population.
• 44.3% of those surveyed do not provide culturally and linguistically appropriate, person-centered care today and only provide care in English. While more than half are trying — 55.7% say they do this in some instances but not all and that there is room for improvement.
• 55.2% of organizations did not have racial or linguistic data on their employees
• Top barriers to implementing health equity initiatives were self-reported to included: budget, lack of or outdated systems, data challenges, leadership, guidelines and governance, resource limitations (including human resources), timing and prioritization, training and knowledge, and others.

"The data clearly shows the U.S. is still in its early days of addressing health inequities," said Dr. John Sargent, founder Vantage Health Technologies and BroadReach Group. "While health systems work to improve data collection, technologies can be implemented now to help identify areas for improvement and create a clear roadmap. The most important thing is that payers and providers meet patients where they're at and provide tailored care."

"For true improvement in health equity, unless your population is totally homogeneous, you're actually going to have to address things in a much more targeted way," says Dr. Chris Esguerra, the chief medical officer for Health Plan of San Mateo and one of Vantage's medical advisors in the survey. "Everyone focuses on data — or lack of data — as a gap and gets stuck there. Data is the thing that will help you understand that there is a problem, but do you know how to understand the problem?"

Vantage Health Technologies works with payers and providers to implement AI-enabled solutions that suggest health interventions for underserved populations to reduce health inequities. These kinds of inequities cost the U.S. healthcare system $320 billion annually and if left unchecked, these costs are estimated to rise to $1 trillion or more by 2040. For more information, visit www.vantagehealth.tech.

Full market survey will be released and discussed on July 28, 2022; click here to register for the event or here to get the survey.

About Vantage Health Technologies
Vantage Health Technologies provides personalized solutions for health organizations. The Vantage platform goes beyond dashboards, providing next best actions to payers and providers to improve outcomes, decrease costs, and optimize resources. Vantage Health Technologies believes that data alone cannot solve the world's most complex health challenges; it also requires a deep understanding of the social, cultural, and economic context in which people live. Vantage Health Technologies is part of BroadReach Group. For more information, visit www.vantagehealth.tech and www.broadreachcorporation.com/vantage/

About BroadReach Group
BroadReach Group is a global social enterprise that harnesses health technology and innovation to empower human action. It brings nearly two decades of deep healthcare expertise combined with world-class technology solutions to help organizations deliver better health outcomes, improved efficiency of scarce healthcare resources, cost savings, enhanced organizational performance, and more sustainable health systems. BroadReach delivers this value through two businesses. BroadReach Health Development delivers digitally-enabled implementation management and technical assistance services to address the world's most complex health challenges. Vantage Health Technologies delivers solutions for health organizations and their teams on its AI Vantage platform.

Health equity is the founding principle of the BroadReach Group. Since 2003 BroadReach has worked in more than 30 countries to support governments, international NGOs, public and private sector to improve health outcomes for populations in need.

The Group was founded by Drs.John Sargent and Ernest Darkhoh, who have since gone on to be awarded World Economic Forum's 2015 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year and 2021 Microsoft Humans in AI, were also previously awarded Time Magazine Healthcare Hero and named in Devex 40 under 40. For more information, visit www.brhc.com

SOURCE BroadReach Group