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A Playbook For Healthcare Founders To Tackle The U.S. Hispanic Market

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Since the Founding Fathers, the American healthcare system has skirted the line when it came to the needs of minority groups, but especially with Hispanics. Even in pre-COVID times, American healthcare continuously failed Hispanics. In fact, Latinos are the racial and ethnic group least likely to visit the doctor. They also account for one-third of the uninsured in this country. More shocking, almost half of Latinos never visit a medical professional during the year. In the COVID and post-COVID era, it has become clear our homework still sits undone in the subject of fixing the American healthcare system for Hispanics. 

So when and why did it get so bad? 

Inequalities within the healthcare industry are not a new phenomenon. However, prior to COVID-19, we could (and did) allow ourselves to believe that it wasn’t “that bad”. Maybe it was because there wasn’t a virus to scare us into hospital rooms, doctor appointments, and emergency rooms. Maybe it was because we assumed American healthcare was a lost cause and better left “as is”. Maybe it was because we assumed healthcare in the U.S. had always been outlandishly expensive for everyone. After all, we as a country do spend nearly $4 trillion on healthcare annually. That’s nearly $11,000 per person, and twice as much as our developed country peers. We might never know the most accurate reason for these inequalities. However, it sure is time we fix it. 

When COVID-19 heavily struck the U.S. in early 2020, it disproportionately affected Hispanics. In part because a big proportion of this group was classified as essential workers who had a heightened level of exposure to the virus. In addition, Hispanics have higher rates of underlying health problems. Hispanics are 23% more likely to have obesity, 24% more likely to have poorly controlled high blood pressure, and are 50% more likely to die from diabetes or liver disease than their white counterparts. Before Covid we just told ourselves that these numbers weren’t that big of a deal. But COVID taught us that these inequities are worse than we thought. The stats are unacceptable: triple the hospitalization rates, more than double the mortality rates! This was and continues to be a much bigger problem than we had ever imagined. 

So, how do we best tackle a decades old problem and present a realistic, culturally-sensitive solution for Hispanics?

I have previously written about how the solution for Hispanics will come via tech-driven healthcare. One company taking on this challenge is MiSalud, a digital health startup built specifically to take on the health inequities facing the Hispanic community. I recently spoke with the team at MiSalud and got an inside look at their playbook for tackling this daunting problem. MiSalud believes that in order to improve health for Hispanics, we need more than just improved access to our broken healthcare system. The solution must be culturally appropriate, but also needs to focus on three core health principles:

An emphasis on wellness 

Right now, we live in a very reactive society. We wait until we are sick, and then we go find help. Part of this is simply human nature, but a bigger part is in how our medical system has trained us to deal with our health. Even though most of our health problems are preventable, we spend less than 3% of healthcare dollars on prevention. Making matters worse, we know that Latinos are even less likely than their white peers to receive preventive care. If we are going to improve health within the Hispanic community, we need to stop waiting until we are sick to do something about it. We need to transition from REactive to PROactive. 

Accountability at our fingertips

The most difficult part of living a healthy life, isn’t usually knowing what we need to do. We might not know which fats are healthiest or whether to make our sandwiches with whole wheat bread or multigrain, but we all know we should be eating more vegetables, drinking more water, and sleeping eight hours a day. So why don’t we do it? Because changing our daily habits is really hard! Changing health-related behavior is even harder. Especially when it means switching from a delicious mocha frappuccino to plain black coffee. Or going to the gym after a long day at work instead of cozying up with the Netflix series everyone is raving about. Sometimes we need someone else to say, “HEY! MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE!” We need a partner.

We have research showing that simply telling someone else about our goals makes us more likely to meet them, and those success rates increase even more if we check in with that person regularly. But the pinnacle of this concept is a trained professional who will not only help us stick to our goals, but can help us set goals that are both realistic and worthwhile (and maybe even explain the difference between whole-grain and multi-grain). This concept is known as “health coaching,” and its effectiveness has been studied and validated. But private health coaches are expensive, and while many digital health companies are using technology to make these services more affordable, our Hispanic sisters and brothers seem to be an afterthought. We need a scalable digital health solution.

Readily available physicians

A quality preventative program with trained professionals keeping us accountable is a very important start. But still, there are times when traditional medical care is needed. And a digital platform that just says, “Um, you should probably call your doctor,” isn’t good enough. The difficulties Hispanics face receiving healthcare have been well documented, and the last thing we need is to be hung out to dry when we need it most. We need the same people helping us with wellness to help us connect with Spanish speaking doctors. Or better yet, put licensed physicians right on the same platform, making culturally appropriate medical care just a click away. 

The healthcare problems facing our community won't be solved overnight, but innovative companies like MiSalud are putting us on the right path. I hope more companies follow in their footsteps.

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