Healthy Blue Kansas and IntellectAbility Address Health Equity for Kansans with Intellectual Disabilities (IDD)

Kansans with IDD experience preventable health disparities that result in poorer overall health. Clinician education about IDD healthcare can help.

CLEARWATER, FL, USA, July 24, 2023

Through a generous sponsorship from Healthy Blue Kansas in partnership with the Health Equity Through Clinician Education on IDD Initiative, Kansas physicians and other clinicians will now have free access to an online curriculum in IDD healthcare, authored by Dr. Craig Escudé, a board-certified developmental medicine physician and president of IntellectAbility.

According to a recent survey from Harvard Medical School (1), more than 80% of surveyed physicians perceived people with significant disabilities to have a poorer quality of life than non-disabled people, and only 40% rated themselves as feeling “very confident” about their ability to provide the same level of healthcare to their patients with disabilities. Only 56% agreed that they welcome patients with disabilities into their practices.

“Physicians and other clinicians want to embrace and support people with disabilities, but most have not received education in disability-competent healthcare,” said Dr. Escudé. “This results in a culture of fear and uncertainty that leaves people with IDD at the mercy of a healthcare system that doesn’t understand their needs.”

“We value the health and well-being of all Kansans and recognize the importance of collaborating and sharing best practices when it comes to providing the best possible healthcare for people with IDD,” said Bryan Baier, president of Healthy Blue Kansas.

“By making this online curriculum available free of charge to all Kansas physicians and clinicians, we believe we can have a significant impact on health equity and improve the health and well-being of Kansans with IDD.”

“This is a “win-win” for Kansas physicians and other clinicians,” said Dr. Escudé. “At the same time you are increasing your disability healthcare competence, you can earn contact hours toward your license renewal.”

 

 

Click here to learn more about Curriculum in IDD Healthcare eLearn.

If you are a clinician in Kansas, you can enroll in the course here.

 

 

 

About Healthy Blue
Healthy Blue is a collaboration of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), and Anthem Partnership Holding Company, LLC, which was formed specifically to serve Medicaid enrollees. APHC has many years of Medicaid experience through its parent and affiliated companies, serving more than 11 million Medicaid enrollees across 25 markets, including Medicaid members with specialized needs similar to those of the KanCare population. Their Medicaid expertise — combined with the strong and longstanding provider relationships held by BCBSKS and Blue KC across all 105 counties – would position Healthy Blue to infuse both innovation and accountability to the KanCare program if selected as a new managed care organization when the state conducts a procurement this year.

Sources:
1) Physicians’ Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care. 2021. Lisa I. Iezzoni, Sowmya R. Rao, Julie Ressalam, Dragana Bolcic-Jankovic, Nicole D. Agaronnik, Karen Donelan, Tara Lagu, and Eric G. Campbell. Health Affairs, VOL. 40, NO. 2. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01452