making the business case for culturally and linguistically appropriate ...

APPENDIX O- Project MethodologyThe Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP) Foundation with funding from the WhitehouseStation, NJ-based Merck Company Foundation (the philanthropic arm of pharmaceutical companyMerck & Co., Inc.), undertook an assessment to provide information about CLAS projects thatproduced a business benefit so that organizations pursuing CLAS in health care would haveinformation for planning and decision-making about implementation of CLAS in their organizations.In 2005, ACHP empanelled an advisory committee of health plan and other experts in CLASactivities to help guide the process of collecting from health plans and other health careorganizations information that identifies benefits that have been realized from implementation ofCLAS Standards-related projects. The meeting focused on both descriptive and quantitativeinformation available. ACHP used the partners to help identify: 1) important topics to address, and2) the kinds of information available in their plans or organizations (or elsewhere) that could beincluded in this project. This group included ACHP member plans, non-member health plans andproviders, and others with a history of substantial involvement and success in CLASimplementation.Early tasks for this project included a review of existing literature. Selected materials wereannotated and shared among ACHP staff and used to inform interview questions and design abusiness case study format. In addition, staff reviewed notes and discussions from the ACHP CLASadvisory committee from 2005. A broad list of organizational contacts were developed using peerrevieweddocuments, internet search using “CLAS” and health as key words, news articles aboutclinics implementing language interpretation services for LEP, attendance to national conferencesand contacts from CLAS experts in the field.Through these activities, ACHP identified 42 projects that have been documented in the literaturefor engaging and implementing CLAS standards (with 90% primarily documented forinterventions in language access services, CLAS Standards 4 through 7). All Forty-two projectswere contacted. Many of the projects did not have information on the costs and benefits of theirinitiatives and as a result were not considered further for the ACHP project. Of the list of 18projects, 13 projects were selected for business case analysis and highlighted in this report.ACHP developed a one page questionnaire and provided it to each participating organization toaccess the depth of information available. Organizations highlighted include managed careorganizations, hospital systems and a rural community pediatric clinic. Comprehensive telephoneand in-person interviews were conducted as well.ACHP project staff worked with health care organizations to obtain and develop relevantinformation from their experience in implementing CLAS. Such information ranged frominformation about system changes that promoted improved quality in service delivery, toquantifiable results from CLAS implementation that affect reduction of disparities or achievefinancial business objectives.Following the design and completion of the 13 business cases, each case was presented to a smallcommittee of health professionals for external review. This final report was also reviewed by thesame external committee.62