Minnesota continues to be touted as one of the healthiest states in the nation, but has some of the largest inequities. Not all Minnesotans have the same opportunities to achieve good health. An important way to help is to improve our cultural competence — the ability to understand, communicate with and effectively interact with people across cultures. The result: everyone's health and wellness improves.
Reflecting on your own racial and health equity biases
Watch the video series: “Am I a racist doctor?”
- Part 1: Foundations of racial equity in health care
- Part 2: Context building: racial equity in health care
- Part 3: What can we do: racial equity in health care
The American Medical Association has declared racism as a public health crisis. What do you, as a physician, make of that? Through candid discourse between vice president of racial & health equity Bukata Hayes and Dr. Boris Beckert, senior medical director, we wrestle with the question: “Am I a racist doctor?” We embark on an informative journey to unpack the implications of this crisis. Please join us, regardless of where you are on the journey of becoming anti-racist.
IMPORTANT: You can receive continuing education credits when you log in to the Availity Learning Center to watch the videos. New to the learning center? Register here.
Online cultural competency training in Availity
We require all health care providers contracted with Blue Cross to complete cultural competency training each year. To help you meet the requirement, we offer no-cost, online training that can help you care for members with consideration of personal language needs, thoughts, customs, beliefs and values. To access this training:
- Log in to the Availity portal
- Select Payer spaces from the top navigation
- Select BlueCross BlueShield Minnesota health plan from the Payer spaces menu
- Select Access BCBSMN Learning and Development from the Resources tab
- From the Training Opportunities dashboard, search for “Physician’s Cultural Competency” course or navigate to it through Filters on the left
Log in to Availity Register
Let us know when you've completed cultural competency training
Our Minnesota Health Care Program contracts require us to show in our provider directories whether a provider has completed training.
After your organization has completed the Blue Cross cultural competency training or other similar training each year, please let us know. This will help us reflect whether you’ve had this training in the most recent Blue Cross provider directory.
Each year, please complete this form and return it to us as noted on the form. Thank you for helping us support our members.
Race and health equity
Systemic racism has taken a damaging toll on the health of our state. It’s on us to fix it.
More cultural competency resources
- The My Diverse Patients site and its Improving the patient experience training information help you provide individualized care
- Working effectively with interpreters (PDF) explains the benefits, needs and guidelines of working with a qualified interpreter
- Think Cultural Health offers free continuing education e-learning programs designed to help you provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS)
- The AHA / HRET Becoming a Culturally Competent Healthcare Organization Guide explores the concept of cultural competency and builds the case for the enhancement of cultural competency in health care. It offers seven recommendations for improving cultural competency in health care organizations
- EthnoMed offers information about culture, language, health and illness for health care providers who see patients from different ethnic groups. While info is specific to groups in the Seattle area, much of it is applicable in other areas.
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Culturally and linguistically appropriate services in maternal health care: Over the past 30 years, the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has doubled, with significantly higher rates among women from minority groups. Maternal healthcare providers can help eliminate these disparities by delivering the highest quality of care to all women. A program from the HHS Office of Minority Health focuses on culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) as a key strategy for doing so.
This free, accredited, two-hour e-learning program for providers and students teaches skills related to cultural competency, cultural humility, person-centered care, and implicit bias. Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, certified nurse midwives and certified midwives can earn two continuing education credits at no cost. Register to complete the program
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Reduce racial and ethnic disparities in depression management: These tools can help you increase antidepressant medication adherence and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in depression management. Antidepressant medication management provider toolkit (PDF)
Health equity animated
Videos inspired by the community explain equity vs. equality, how zip code, race, income and gender impact equity, and what is the cost of health inequities.
