UPMC Health Plan is committed to removing barriers to health
Health Equity is about providing everyone a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. However, not everyone currently has access to what they need for good health.
Serving our communities is at the center of our mission and inspires our work. We engage in unique programming with community-based organizations and continuously evaluate and innovate clinical programs to help members meet their individual and social needs.
- Through collaborative efforts with multiple community-based organizations, our members and the general community have access to health and wellness services as well as referrals for unmet social needs at the UPMC Health Plan Neighborhood Center. In 2023, more than 5000 individuals received services there. We recently expanded this access model to northwestern Pennsylvania communities through a collaboration with the community-based organization ECAT (Erie Center for Arts and Technology). We also work with Fabric Health to provide on-site health supports and access to social services for individuals utilizing certain laundromats. Services provided include Wi-Fi access and access to Fabric Health staff who help individuals navigate access to preventative and other health care coverage, apply for assistance programs including Medicaid, and connect with other support services.
- As part of our Homeward programming, we operate the program in partnership with Community Human Services and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services Continuum of Care to help members who are experiencing housing insecurity in addition to complex medical and behavioral health needs. In 2023, we enrolled our 200th participant in the program. The lending pool for this investment has grown to 10 million.
- Together with the Henry L. Hillman Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, UPMC for You has created the Preserve Affordability Pittsburgh loan pool to help preserve affordable housing in Pittsburgh neighborhoods.
We design and implement unique programs and benefits to meet individuals where they are and address their diverse individual and social needs across their lifespan and life experience.
Here are a few examples of how we address diverse needs across the lifespan and life experience:
- In 2023, Community Care Behavioral Health launched Our HAIR (Health Access Initiative for Recovery) a community-based health access program to provide mental health support for Medicaid members in local salons and barbershops.
- The UPMC for Life Medicare Faith and Wellness Program (formerly named the Medicare Healthy Church Challenge) collaborates with Faith-Based Organizations to offer an 8-week challenge where organizations receive financial compensation for their involvement. Participants, including UPMC Health Plan members and non-members, engage in holistic wellness activities across various dimensions, earning points for their involvement. In 2023, the Medicare Faith and Wellness Program reached 24 Faith-Based Organizations and 401 Medicare beneficiaries, with 28% confirmed as UPMC Health Plan members.
- Our Intellectual Disability/Autism (ID/A) Care Management Program connects care management and clinical teams to help UPMC Health Plan members get the care that they need and maximize their benefits. The ID/A Waiver Waiting List Initiative empowers the Community Paramedicine team to conduct in-person visits or make phone calls to make relevant referrals to our members on the Pennsylvania DHS’s Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) waiver waiting list.
- For over a decade, the UPMC Health Plan Baby Steps maternity care managers have been trusted partners in care for pregnant women and their families and have become pivotal in enhancing maternal care for Black women in Pennsylvania. In 2023, the mobile team of care managers participated in 36 community events, including health fairs, mom/baby expos, March of Dimes walks, Moms Matter gatherings, and Beverly’s Birthdays events.
We provide resources, training, and education to all in our workforce on foundational health equity topics such as implicit bias. We provide additional specialized training for employees who work directly with our members like motivational interviewing skills and poverty simulation experiences. We also sponsor 11 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which are networks of employees that form based on shared characteristics or backgrounds. ERG members often share common ties, including their job roles, background, ethnicity, race, gender, etc. ERGs can serve as a forum for community-building; input to improve employee, patient, member, and community experience; and engagement in business opportunities and challenges.
Our commitment and efforts toward improving health equity have been recognized by national organizations. In 2023, we received a top score of 100 on the Human Rights Committee (HRC) Foundation’s 2023 Corporate Equality Index, the US’s foremost benchmarking survey and report on LGBTQIA+ workplace equality policies and practices. From 2018-2024, we have consistently been named among the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. In 2024, we also received the "Excellence in Health Equity Award" from the Business Group on Health for a variety of initiatives and resources, including efforts to advance digital equity among our employees.
We invest in our future workforce and empower our members to achieve economic stability through long-standing partnerships with community organizations like Partner4Work that connect un(der)employed individuals, families, and people with barriers with career pathways, educational supports, and sustainable wages. Our Pathways to Work programming connects individuals who are out of work, underemployed, or who have barriers to work with training and employment opportunities.
Our Freedom House 2.0 program, a community-based training program built on the groundbreaking 1960s Freedom House Ambulance service model, trains UPMC for You Medicaid members to work toward meaningful careers in health care. As of the end of 2023, Freedom House 2.0 graduated 11 classes totaling 109 new community health workers, 54 of whom were hired by UPMC and community-based organizations.
We are part of UPMC’s integrated delivery and finance system (IDFS) that fosters partnerships with the clinicians of our Health Services Division to develop, incubate, evaluate, and scale innovative programming to improve health care access, quality, and affordability for our members.
For example:
- Since 2022, our UPMC Health Plan Tech Guides have been supporting our members’ digital literacy needs. Tech Guides are a specially trained team with a mission to enhance digital equity. They answer questions about our digital offerings, such as the UPMC Health Plan member app and MyUPMC. They are also trained to connect members with other digital equity programs such as Lifeline devices and FCC broadband subsidies.
- We have UPMC Health Plan Connect Center locations across Pennsylvania available to the members and communities in geographic areas that face challenges accessing broadband internet. Connect Centers are equipped with telehealth equipment to provide telehealth care. Tech Guide services are available at all of these locations.
- Our Quality Improvement team seeks to improve clinical outcomes, health equity, and member experience and engagement for all UPMC Health Plan products. In 2022, we were one of the first health plans to earn Health Equity Accreditations from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). UPMC for You, earned Health Equity Accreditation and Health Equity Plus Accreditation status from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), which recognized UPMC for You's strong commitment to and results related to diversity, inclusion and equity for both its employees and members.
- In 2023, we launched a pilot program to connect UPMC for You members to resources that address social determinants of health (SDOH) needs through the United Way of Pennsylvania’s 211 statewide referral database.
- Our in-house research center, the UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care, works to understand the impact of innovative programs that improve health care access, quality, affordability, and equity. Since 2011, they have supported research and evaluation for more than 55 projects with UPMC and UPMC Health Plan. Specific to advancing health equity, are a project to create a diverse and collaborative network focused on eliminating maternal health disparities and a project to build a coordinated trauma informed care system to enhance the well-being and resilience of children, families, and those working in the child welfare system. The Center facilitates a large multi-year project funded by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI®) and is focused on supporting UPMC’s efforts to implement and evaluate new, evidence-based practices with a health equity lens.