What you need to know
- Google hosts its annual Health Equity summit this week.
- The company announced that it's making it easier to enroll in government benefit programs.
- Users will be able to more easily find providers that support Medicare and Medicaid.
Healthcare remains a hot topic in the United States as many still lack basic access to healthcare services or lack access to information that can help them with their healthcare needs. Google has continuously built new features into Search to help make this information more accessible to users, and the company is further expanding on its work with updates announced on Monday.
As part of its annual Health Equity Summit, Google announced that it is adding new features to Search that will help more people enroll in government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
In the coming weeks, searching for these programs will make it easier to find eligibility information and how to enroll. Additionally, users enrolling or already enrolled will be able to quickly search for providers that accept these programs. This expands on work Google introduced last year, allowing users to filter searches based on providers that accept Medicare. Now, this is being expanded to users with Medicaid as well.
Medicaid is a program that provides health coverage to low-income adults, children, persons with disabilities, and more. As of May 2022, more than 81 million people, or roughly one in four people, are covered by Medicaid.
In addition, Google is partnering with Kaiser Family Foundation on a new initiative for YouTube dubbed THE-IQ. Working with organizations such as The Loveland Foundation, National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC), and Satcher Health Leadership Institute, this new initiative will bring a series of videos to YouTube discussing topics focused on how the lack of quality information can contribute to the lack of health care in underrepresented communities.
Lastly, Google is doing its part by expanding its Fitbit Health Equity Research Initiative to help support underrepresented researchers seeking to address health disparities in their communities.
