FAIR Health Presents at Grantmakers in Health Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy
June 22, 2023
FAIR Health presented at the Grantmakers in Health (GIH) Annual Conference on Health Philanthropy, which was held from June 7-9, 2023, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The presentation, “Empowering Consumers to Navigate the Healthcare System: FAIR Health Initiatives,” focused on FAIR Health’s consumer-oriented initiatives, particularly those for minority communities, that have sought to advance health insurance literacy and education around shared decision making (SDM) with cost information. SDM is the process by which the healthcare provider and the patient and/or caregiver decide on treatment options and care, balancing clinical evidence with patients’ preferences and values.
The GIH conference theme, “Advancing Philanthropy’s Commitment to the Long Game,” focused on how grantmakers are acknowledging the importance of long-term engagement and the need to support innovative strategies for sustained giving to achieve better health. In keeping with this theme, Irfan Hasan, The New York Community Trust (The Trust) Deputy Vice President for Grants, opened the presentation with an overview of The Trust’s key initiatives and prior grant support for FAIR Health’s consumer initiatives, primarily those focused on minority communities. Starting in 2015, The Trust has funded initiatives by FAIR Health to empower consumers to navigate the healthcare system.
FAIR Health’s presentation offered a brief overview of the organization and its grant-funded consumer-oriented initiatives. FAIR Health provides free healthcare cost estimation tools in English and Spanish on a free, award-winning consumer website, fairhealthconsumer.org, and via an app, FH® Consumer Classroom (available on the Apple Store and Google Play). An interactive demonstration of an SDM tool (combining clinical and cost information) on FAIR Health Consumer illustrated how FAIR Health tools and contextualized educational content can empower consumers and advance health equity among vulnerable populations.
Through its grant-funded initiatives, FAIR Health has sought to advance health insurance literacy and SDM with cost information among minority communities, seriously ill patients and older adults by equipping these populations with tools needed to navigate the healthcare system and make informed healthcare decisions. These resources seek to counter the prevalence of low health insurance literacy among American adults, especially those who are uninsured or come from minority or low-income backgrounds. In addition to receiving grants from The Trust, FAIR Health has received generous support from funders such as the Connecticut Health Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the New York Health Foundation and The John A. Hartford Foundation.
Learn more about FAIR Health’s grant-funded initiatives.