Please support Telehealth.org’s ability to deliver helpful news, opinions, and analyses by turning off your ad blocker. Communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) don’t have the same access to quality healthcare as the rest of the population. The pandemic highlighted this problem as BIPOC communities suffered higher infection and mortality rates.
Diversity telehealth has the power to change this scenario. Telehealth is credited with expanding healthcare access to underserved BIPOC populations, and these care strategies are growing. BIPOC healthcare strategies combine telehealth with cultural insights to offer marginalized people remote access to healthcare quickly, conveniently, and less expensively.
Diversity Telehealth is Growing
Several organizations stepped in during the pandemic to offer diverse healthcare, particularly behavioral therapy. Organizations like Latinx Therapy aim to help Latinos, and Headspace Health serves the diverse healthcare industry.
Growth in innovative telehealth diversity is also spreading to other healthcare spaces, with several emerging diversity telehealth organizations serving BIPOC communities.
Three such companies are featured below.
City Block Provides Physical and Remote Healthcare
City Block offers tailored healthcare to underserved US populations providing both remote and physical healthcare. Patients work with a community health partner trained in diversity telehealth, often from the same community. Partners get structured training and may sit in at appointments, take notes, and discuss health outcomes with clients.
City block takes responsibility for all clients, even those using alternative healthcare providers. The company also partners with insurance companies to find the most affordable medication for their clients.
Zócalo Health Serving the Latino Community in Texas and California
Digital healthcare provider, Zócalo Health, launched in July 2022 to serve the Latino community. The company employs Latino healthcare workers to assist clients living in California and Texas. Zócalo Health is the first healthcare company to offer this service to this community.
Co-founders Erik Cardenas and Mariza Hardin tailored the Zócalo Health system to the distinctive needs of the Latino populations they serve. The founders say that healthcare should include culture and traditions and not just language. They say that a one size fits all approach to healthcare doesn’t work because it fails to recognize cultural influences in understanding illness, treatment, and healthcare providers.
Currently, Zócalo Health offers virtual care via its digital platform, but there are plans to add in-person options. The company uses community health workers to help members access the community or government services the platform can’t provide. These health workers also help to make appointments, plan transport and explain deductibles.
Members pay $45 per month, and families pay $65. Members enjoy 12 physician visits a year and have as much access as they need to their health workers.
Spora Health Serving People of Color
Diversity telehealth primary healthcare provider, Spora Health, serves people of color. Every healthcare provider that starts at Spora Health undergoes diversity telehealth training. Spora Health’s Chief Medical Officer, Louis Capponi, M.D., works very hard to reduce employee racial bias. He believes people must unlearn these biases to provide competent healthcare to diverse populations.
Diversity Telehealth Bridges the Gap
BIPOC communities often live in widespread rural areas and must plan long commutes to healthcare facilities. Diversity telehealth can bridge the gap by giving these communities access to remote healthcare in their preferred languages to help them improve healthcare outcomes.
Telehealth.org
Telehealth.org provides this information to highlight areas of opportunity for professionals seeking to expand their telehealth services. If you found it helpful, please take a moment to comment below, share with a colleague, or “like” this article by clicking the blue heart on the top screen.
Accepting Telehealth Jobs: 5 Big Legal & Ethical Mistakes to Avoid
Do you have questions about being employed or looking for employment from a digital health company? Online employment can pose dilemmas that leave clinicians at a loss for how to proceed. This program will answer your questions about how or reasonably uphold your legal and ethical mandates.
