Kaiser Permanente Recognized by NCQA for Innovative Program to Reduce Health Care D...(s in the community. More than 10000 refe...),Health

Moving forward, Kaiser Permanente is incorporating the standardized quality translation process into a web-based environment, thereby facilitating shared access, creating opportunities for collaboration, reducing translation redundancy, and improving translation quality through systematic application of the evidence-based quality assurance and quality improvement process.

"It is a major priority for Kaiser Permanente to be culturally competent in every aspect of our care delivery and service," said George C. Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. "We are honored to be acknowledged by the NCQA for our accomplishments in further breaking the barriers to health communication by providing accurate and usable health information to our members and the communities we serve."

According to the landmark 2002 Institute of Medicine study, "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care," minorities in the U.S. tend to get lower quality health care than whites, even when such factors as medical conditions, insurance and economic status are equivalent.

Kaiser Permanente received its award in Washington, D.C. on November 13 during the second annual "Breakthroughs in Reducing Health Care Disparities." The award was initiated after the NCQA -- with major funding from The California Endowment and support from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services -- started to investigate the feasibility for health plans to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care and to monitor health care disparities using clinical quality data.

For information about the other health plans recognized in 2007 by NCQA, as well the conferences on multicultural health care, visit http://www.ncqa.org.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Perman
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