Community Health Plan of Washington CEO Leanne Berge said advancing health equity, and reducing and eliminating disparities are her top healthcare reform priorities at the 2024 State of Reform Health Policy Conference last month.
“We are only as strong as our weakest link, and if we are not focused on the areas that people have been historically seeing these gaps (in), we’re never going to be successful as a state in (the) health and well-being of our communities. So number one is recognizing disparities that exist because of historical reasons, because of racism, because of ageism, because of a lack of communication among folks of different cultural needs, (and) because of geographic reasons. We have to focus on root causes if we’re going to see health improvement.”
— Berge
Another top priority for Berge is supporting patient-centered, whole-person care.
“That means it’s the patients who determine what’s best for their health. It’s not a top-down, patronizing perspective of how people’s needs need to be met. People’s needs are very complex; their social, behavioral, (and) physical (needs) connect. If that isn’t addressed in a holistic manner, we’re not going to see improvement in our health.”
— Berge
Reducing fragmentation of care delivery is also important, Berge said.
“This is something we’ve been working on historically, and it’s still a problem. But that’s where it’s important to put all these pieces together, including shifting the incentives from volume to outcomes. And if we do that, we have a broader opportunity to avoid fragmented healthcare silos that have really been a detriment to people’s health and well-being.”
— Berge