Fortunately, many physicians and health plans these days are learning to be more sensitive to patients' cultural backgrounds.
Many health plans publish patient education materials in various languages.
And some have programs aimed at developing what is called cultural competence. Some HMOs, such as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Massachusetts, Kaiser Permanente in California, and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in the state of Washington, have sent physicians to training programs to improve their cultural competence and sensitivity. One company that sells malpractice insurance even makes cultural competence a money-saver for doctors. A culturally competent physician tries to become familiar with the ethnic and cultural groups in his or her area. For example, in Minnesota there is a large concentration of the Hmong people, a group originally from Southeast Asia.