Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan Helps Medi-Cal Members Receive Quality Care with Timely, Culturally Relevant Text Messages

Text messaging in 22 languages helps thousands of Medi-Cal families in  Southern California receive improved access to health services

Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan is improving healthcare outcomes for Medi-Cal members with ConsejoSano’s language appropriate and culturally relevant text-messaging service that helps patients engage with their physicians and care providers.

ConsejoSano offers its services in 22 different languages. It has successfully held several health engagement campaigns for Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan members, achieving meaningful results. The campaigns have included childhood and adolescent immunizations, well child visits, maternal health, diabetes and cervical cancer screenings. 

Reaching plan members in their preferred language with timely prompts has resulted in more members receiving the care they need. So far, the campaigns have generated more than 127,000 texts in 22 languages, reaching nearly 18,000 members. 

“Care gaps develop when patients miss important medical services such as childhood immunizations, cancer screenings and well child visits. This is why it is so critical for us to figure out new ways to help our members engage with their providers and receive the care that they need and deserve,” said Tanya Dansky, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan. “ConsejoSano helps us to do that in a way that’s culturally and linguistically relevant to each person in our health plan.”

One in three Californians is a Medi-Cal beneficiary. Those individuals come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and they can feel disconnected from the healthcare system when they are not reached in a way that shows respect for their culture and language.

“As a result, patients can become disengaged, and may not seek the care they need,” Dr. Dansky said. “To address this issue, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan is taking a patient-centered approach to engage with its Medi-Cal members.”

“This is an important step in communicating with a diverse population and helping them understand the complex world of health care via their preferred method, which is text messaging,” said Abner Mason, CEO of ConsejoSano. “Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan has shown tremendous foresight in meeting Medi-Cal patients where they are, understanding them, and communicating with them in their preferred way.”

Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan and ConsejoSano have developed multiple unique engagement campaigns to help improve clinical quality outcomes for multicultural populations of Medi-Cal members in Antelope Valley and San Diego. They include: 

• Well Child Visit Campaign that educates parents about the importance of well child visits. The effort has resulted in nearly 1,400 well child visits, closing an estimated 40 percent of care gaps. The two-way messaging feature allows members to notify the health plan when the child has been seen by their provider. This helps the health plan better understand any disparities in preventive care or barriers such as access to transportation which can impact a family’s ability to attend appointments.

• Cervical Cancer Screening Campaign that helps notify Medi-Cal members who are due for cervical cancer screenings such as Pap tests, which can be a difficult topic to address in some cultures. Through a campaign designed with these cultural sensitivities in mind, nearly 2,500 additional women have received these important screenings which may have an impact in the future on morbidity and mortality for a leading cause of cancer death in women. 

• Type 2 Diabetes Care Campaign that provides outreach to Medi-Cal members who have type 2 diabetes and utilize the Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan clinics located in Los Angeles County’s Antelope Valley. Patients’ response was so outstanding that the health plan redesigned the campaign to help the clinics with the high demand for appointments by motivated and engaged members.  

For more information, please visit www.blueshieldca.com/promise to learn more about Medi-Cal health plan options in your area. 

About Blue Shield of California
Blue Shield of California strives to create a health care system worthy of our family and friends that is sustainably affordable. We are a not for profit, independent member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with care for four million members, 6,800 employees and more than $20 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 and headquartered in San Francisco, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare health care service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $500 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation since 2002 to have an impact on California communities. 

For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit www.news.blueshieldca.com. 

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About ConsejoSano
ConsejoSano is a patient engagement platform that helps connect payers, providers and health systems with their multicultural Medicaid and Medicare patient populations. The company utilizes multi-channel engagement tools to reach patients in a culturally relevant way that increases engagement, lowers costs, and improves health outcomes. For more information, visit www.consejosano.com.