Medicaid Managed Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

176 Communicating the Quality Message
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As part of its Violence Initiative, Allina also has partnered with the Minnesota Medical
Association on its Stop the Media Violence campaign and with state officials in the creation
of a new governor's commission that will look at violence as a public health issue. Through
these and other collaborative efforts, Allina believes it can make an important and lasting
contribution to the broad health of its communities, especially its more vulnerable ones.
CONCLUSION
<strong>Medicaid</strong> recipients are a diverse group of people with a variety of complex social as well
as medical needs. The fact that <strong>Medicaid</strong> recipients have health care does not mean that they
can access that care. Many <strong>Medicaid</strong> recipients face a host of obstacles-such as difficulty
understanding English, finding affordable housing, or obtaining a ride to a doctor's officethat
make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to keep appointments with health care
providers or follow up on the treatment prescribed them.
For a managed care system to be effective, it must address the social as well as the medical
problems of its <strong>Medicaid</strong> members. It must also develop innovative, nontraditional
ways of communicating with those members. To be truly effective, howevei all communication
efforts must acknowledge the great diversity that exists within vulnerable populations.
A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. As David Strand, president of Medica
Health Plans and system vice president of Allina Health System, has said: "Health plans that
truly serve <strong>Medicaid</strong> recipients must take a specialized approach and adapt to the distinct
needs of low-income and special-needs enrollees. Such an approach presents those of us in
managed care with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to listen more
closely to what the enrollees themselves have to tell us about the obstacles that stand in their
way to accessing quality health care. The opportunity is to work more diligently with them
and others in our communities to help remove those obstacles. Only by listening well and
working together will we enable our most vulnerable populations to receive the quality
health care available to them."