ABSTRACT
Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), the second largest HMO in Israel, has chosen to implement a multi-annual strategy to promote equality and equity in healthcare. Within the strategy's framework, MHS will maintain an ongoing process of studying the variability of its members characteristics for the purpose of adjusting service provision and improving health outcomes. MHS has recently published its first Equality Report, dedicated to defining the observed associations between its members demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and their health measures. The report identifies those sub-groups belonging to Israel's geographic and social peripheries that require focused interventions. Based on the report's recommendations, MHS has decided to designate promotion of equality as its strategic objective, a filter through which every policy decision will be reviewed. In addition it was decided to: 1. develop an organizational methodology to produce an index to assess reductions in disparities over time; 2. adjust MHS services to member's ethnic and cultural needs; 3. strengthen perceptions of community orientation based in primary care; 4. target resources to "social peripheries", beginning in 2010; 5. improve service accessibility and availability in geographically peripheral areas; 6. reduce economic barriers to healthcare. This article details the disparities as analyzed in the report in addition to the specific policy decisions made in their wake.
