Health Equity Technical Assistance
Health Equity Technical Assistance

Are you looking for a way to promote health equity, but aren’t sure where to start? CMS OMH offers health equity technical assistance resources, aimed to help health care organizations take action against health disparities.
If your organization is looking for assistance, please email:
About the Health Equity Technical Assistance Program
The CMS OMH Health Equity Technical Assistance Program offers:
- Personalized coaching and resources to help you embed health equity into your strategic plan
- Resources on improving care for racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, individuals with limited English proficiency, sexual and gender minorities, and rural populations
- Data collection and analysis
- Help developing a language access plan and ensuring effective communication with those you serve
Health Equity Technical Assistance Resources for Health Care Professionals

Minority Research Grant Program
Focuses on designing and testing interventions that aim to reduce disparities in readmission and/or patient experience.

Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool
Presents health-related measures from Medicare claims by sex, age, dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, race and ethnicity, and state and county.

Guide to Developing a Language Access Plan (PDF)
Identifies ways that providers can develop language access plans to ensure persons with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to their programs.

Disparities Impact Statement (PDF)
Provides personalized technical assistance focused on strengthening your quality improvement program through a series of consultations from subject matter experts.
- Data Sources Handout (PDF) – Data sources including health, health care, and demographic information that can be used to identify disparities, and to help with CMS Disparities Impact Statement and quality improvement.

Getting the Care You Need – A Guide for People with Disabilities (PDF)
Provides tools and resources to empower people with disabilities. Now available in 8 languages:

Modernizing Health Care to Improve Physical Accessibility (PDF)
Includes guidance on how to increase physical accessibility of medical services, tools to assess your practice or facility’s accessibility, and tips and training materials to support efforts to reduce barriers and improve quality of care for individuals with disabilities.

A Practical Guide to Implementing the National CLAS Standards (PDF)
Enables organizations to implement the National CLAS Standards and improve health equity.

Providing Language Services to Diverse Populations: Lessons from the Field (PDF)
Discusses approaches to providing language assistance services to persons with limited English proficiency.

Guide to Reducing Disparities in Readmissions (PDF)
Provides an overview of key issues related to readmissions for racially and ethnically diverse Medicare beneficiaries and resources for hospital leaders to take action to address readmission.

Compendium of Federal Datasets Addressing Health Disparities (PDF)
Includes a compilation of Federal datasets related to health equity to help shape and inform the development of effective programs, policies, and practices.

Understanding and Using American Community Survey Data: What Federal Agencies Need to Know
This resource from the Census Bureau discusses topics covered in the American Community Survey (ACS), how to use data, how data becomes part of the ACS, considerations, accessing the data, case studies, and additional resources.

Using Z Codes: The Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data Journey to Better Outcomes (PDF)
Describes the journey that SDOH data takes from the individual through the health system to data reporting as ICD-10-CM Z codes, and contains resources to help implement programs to collect and report SDOH data.

Trainings for Health Care Providers
- MLN Events & Trainings
Includes self-paced courses on a broad range of topics. - Introduction to Language Access Plans
Learn about developing and using a language access plan, and how it impacts health care services for those with limited English proficiency - The Using CMS Data for Research on Disparities in Health and Health Care webcast describes CMS data resources, files, and measures that can be used in studying disparities in health care.
- The Sources and Use of Medicare Enrollment Information training reviews the source of the data found in the Medicare Beneficiary Summary File and who is included in the file.
- The Using Medicare Hospitalization Information and the MedPAR slide deck training discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the MedPAR/Inpatient data.
- Complete the Improving Health Care Quality for LGBTQ People training to learn to identify sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) terminology to build trust with LGBTQ patients and recognize health disparities that impact many older LGBTQ adults.
- Take the Modernizing Health Care to Improve Physical Accessibility web based training on the MLN site to learn about solutions for increasing the physical accessibility of health care settings and services for people with disabilities.
For More Information
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