Staff Reports
AmeriHealth Caritas Florida has earned the Multicultural Health Care Distinction from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
The Medicaid managed care plan, which serves seven Florida counties, was recognized for its excellence in providing services to meet the diverse cultural and linguistic needs of a health plan’s members, and its work to help address health disparities.
AmeriHealth Caritas Florida received top marks across the survey. It is one of eight AmeriHealth Caritas Medicaid managed care health plans to hold the Multicultural Health Care Distinction.
The health plan offers numerous services to meet the diverse needs of its membership, such as targeted programs and interventions to address identified health disparities; bilingual staff; cultural responsiveness training for providers; cultural competency training for associates; interpretation and translation language services; and written materials in members’ preferred language.
“Receiving the Multicultural Health Care Distinction for AmeriHealth Caritas Florida underscores our commitment to health equity and addressing the social determinates of health with a high degree of cultural awareness and sensitivity,” said AmeriHealth Caritas Florida Market President Kathy Warner. “Through this important work, we help to provide better health care access to all.”
AmeriHealth Caritas Florida serves about 120,000 members across Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. In Miami-Dade County alone, Hispanics and Latinos account for almost 70% of its 2.66 million residents.
Across AmeriHealth Caritas Florida’s total membership in 2021, 44% identified as Black or African American and nearly 30% identified as Hispanic. After English, Spanish and Haitian Creole are the two languages most spoken by AmeriHealth Caritas Florida members.
NCQA awards distinction to organizations that meet or exceed its rigorous requirements for multicultural health care. NCQA evaluates how well an organization complies with standards for the following areas:
—Collection of race, ethnicity and language data
—Provision of language assistance
—Cultural responsiveness
—Quality improvement of culturally and linguistically appropriate services
—Reduction of health care disparities
“Earning Multicultural Health Care Distinction shows that an organization is making a breakthrough in providing excellent health care to diverse populations. I congratulate any organization that achieves this level of distinction,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “Eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care is essential to improving the quality of care overall.”
