Applications are no longer being accepted for the 2008 Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care award program.
NCQA, supported by The California Endowment, announces its third annual Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care award program to publicly recognize health plans that have implemented initiatives to ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate services and reduce health care disparities.
2008 Award winners will be honored at an awards event in San Francisco on September 18, 2008. Awardees will also showcase their award winning initiatives at a poster session and reception before the event. All are invited to attend. Please contact CLASAwards@ncqa.org for more information.
Awards Overview
NCQA will highlight and recognize health plans for their exemplary efforts and demonstrated effectiveness in promoting cultural competence and addressing the health care needs of diverse members. Through these awards, NCQA hopes to advance efforts to improve multicultural health care and eliminate health care disparities.
The awards will also help:
- Identify models for potential replication in other settings and for shared learning
- Provide a forum for dissemination and recognition of health plans’ efforts to address culturally and linguistically appropriate services and reduce disparities among their members and communities
- Inform NCQA as it develops voluntary accreditation standards to help organizations assess their efforts to address CLAS and disparities
Topic areas for applications, based on key concepts from the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care developed by the Office of Minority Health, HHS, include:
- Language access
- Cultural competence
- Reducing clinical disparities
- Community driven programs/community partnerships
- Culturally and linguistically appropriate patient education
- Cross-cultural health initiatives
- Quality and culture intersection
- Culturally tailored disease management
For more information, please contact CLASAwards@ncqa.org.