Firm I

Hispanic patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease in 250 practices in six states.

Practices are encouraged to agree to participate at no cost in a Web-based patient registry that will provide the practices with a planner with real-time disease-specific patient information.  Practices can use it for all their patients; the firm will get information on those patients who are in firm products, which will be compiled into a database.

Firm II

Target population not yet identified.

The firm is designing an intervention that will focus on the medical group and will involve changes to the care model process, targeting reduction of disparities in diabetes and preventive care.  Will convene an equitable care expert panel in January 2007 to both examine the process of care and determine how to close the gap in care for groups whose care processes are below those of other groups.

Firm III

Hispanic and African American patients with diabetes (initial target population of 3,285 members).

Through its disease management vendor, the firm is providing reminders to providers whose patients missed appointments or were overdue for preventive services.  Includes cultural competency training for disease management staff and targeted member mailings.

Firm IV

Members served through its disease management vendor's 10-state call center with a high proportion of African American and Hispanic members.

The firm is training center nurses and nurse coaches in its Health Advisor program in culturally appropriate ways to encourage appropriate medication use and compliance.

Firm V

Hispanic diabetic members in southern California.

The firm plans to use GIS to identify "clusters" with relatively large numbers of Hispanic diabetic members not receiving either HbA1c testing, lipid testing, or both.  Will explore characteristics to help clarify contributing factors and potential impact of different interventions on narrowing the gap between Hispanic and other members as well as improving HEDIS scores for entire membership in the area.

Firm VI

Spanish-speaking members participating in a disease management program (n=150-200).

The firm provided Spanish-speaking case managers to diabetic members upon request.

Firm VII

Hispanic members with diabetes in one of the firm's regions (n=52).

In collaboration with the region's Center for Excellence, the firm used a personalized letter from patients' providers to encourage patients to use a three-drug lipid-lowering regimen.

Firm VIII

Racial/ethnic minority diabetic members (n=4,693).

The firm implemented an interactive voice recognition call campaign to 24,667 diabetic members in which a culturally sensitive message explained that their race/ethnicity could affect their risk for diabetes and urged them to respond if interested in additional information.  The firm sent diabetes-related educational materials and information on contacting health coaches to the 4,693 members who requested additional information.

Firm IX

An estimated 2,500 to 4,000 minority high-risk diabetic members in Massachusetts.

The firm partnered with Stop and Shop grocery stores to offer Community Care Days, on which the firm offered free interpreter services, eye exams, glucose meters and training, nutrition counseling and discount coupons for healthy foods, medication counseling by bilingual pharmacists, and educational materials in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.