Cultural Competence Program Established
Magellan Health Services of Nebraska is committed to a strong cultural diversity program. Magellan recognizes the diversity and specific cultural needs of its members and has developed a comprehensive program that addresses these needs in an effective and respectful manner. We want the Magellan method for provision of care to be compatible with the member’s cultural health beliefs and practices, and preferred language. Aspects of this philosophy and approach are embedded throughout the new comprehensive Magellan Cultural Diversity Program.
As one of the initial steps in the cultural diversity program implementation, we collected data so that we can integrate cultural and linguistic competence-related measures into ongoing internal audits, performance improvement programs and member satisfaction assessments.
- We learned that 91 percent of members responding to our member satisfaction survey were pleased with their provider’s sensitivity to their cultural background.
- We collected information about the ethnicity of our members.
Ethnicity of Nebraska Medicaid Members
Ethnicity |
Nebraska Plan* |
Nebraska General** Population |
|---|---|---|
Asian |
1% |
Not Reported |
Black/African American |
13.8% |
4.2% |
Hispanic |
14.5% |
6.7% |
American Indian/Alaskan Native |
3.4% |
0.8% |
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander |
0.1% |
1.7% |
White (Non-Hispanic) |
63.4% |
85.5% |
More than one race (non-Hispanic/Latino) |
0.6% |
1.1% |
Unknown |
3.2% |
Not Reported |
Total |
100% |
100% |
*From June 2006 membership |
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- We also learned of 19 “second languages” represented in our provider network (e.g., Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, German, Chinese, French, Hebrew, sign language, Portuguese, Japanese, Telugu, Filipino, Arabic, Farsi, Yiddish, Korean, Egyptian, Afrikaans and Czech).
We will keep you informed as we continue to develop resources and implement plans to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate member services. You can find additional information on cultural competency, including assessment tools, guidelines, standards and resources on this website, www.MagellanHealth.com/provider , by choosing “Cultural Competency” from the “Education” top-menu item.