Maven Clinic, a global virtual clinic for women’s and family health, announced last week it had earned NCQA’s health equity accreditation.
The accreditation evaluated, over 18 months, how well Maven complies with standards across multiple categories. They included organizational readiness, access and availability of language services, provider cultural responsiveness, reducing health disparities and more.
During the course of the evaluation, Maven established several programs. One of them was a culturally and linguistically appropriate services program for quality improvement interventions. Most (84%) Maven members self-report race data, notably higher than the average of 25% for commercial plans who have this data for most of their members. Having this data drives more personalized care, Maven argues. Maven also collects data on its providers: 40% identify as a race other than white or multi-racial, and 11% identify as LGBTQ+.
In early 2024, Maven also established a community advisory board, made up of Maven providers, members and leaders of community-based maternal health organizations. The board’s goal is to inform the company’s clinical strategies and ensure it meets the needs of underserved populations. The company leaned on the board to enrich the experience of virtual doulas on its platform and refine its care-matching offering.
As part of its efforts to understand demographics and possible cultural barriers, Maven offers a provider onboarding survey and captures language preferences during member onboarding. It has resources in members’ top languages and offers care in more than 35 languages. The company also does a bi-annual analysis of the network’s capacity to meet members’ needs and distributes an annual culturally responsive survey to evaluate providers’ attitudes.
The accreditation “validates our ability to deliver equitable outcomes at the highest level,” Kate Ryder, founder and CEO of Maven, told Fierce Healthcare in an emailed comment. “A health equity-driven model not only produces better care but also reduces costs. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
When it comes to collecting data, Ryder added Maven has always been a healthcare and tech company “in equal measure, meaning data is in our DNA…This accreditation process asked us to go a step further, ensuring that our data collection is regular and systematic because that is the only way to find and close disparities.”
According to the NCQA, 65 organizations earned the health equity accreditation in 2024. Health plans were the bulk of that. Maven is among nine non-health plans to earn the status this year, NCQA confirmed to Fierce Healthcare. Organizations eligible to apply include payers, health systems, managed behavioral healthcare organizations, population health organizations and more. NCQA’s report card shows that 192 organizations currently have a Health Equity Accredited status, the representative said.
“At Maven, we believe health equity is operational, not only aspirational,” said Neel Shah, M.D., Maven’s CMO, in an announcement. “This accreditation is a resounding validation of Maven’s ability to deliver equitable outcomes at scale using digital technology.”
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