• Bukata Hayes, VP of racial and healty equity at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota - bukata.hayes@bluecrossmn.com

• Dr. Pat Courneya, Chief Medical Officer, health plan at Health Partners - patrick.t.courneya@healthpartners.com

• Alex Tittle, Senior Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at Medica - alex.tittle@medica.com

• Carolyn Tandy, chief inclusion and diversity officer at Humana - ctandy@humana.com

• Anjali Bhagra, M.D., Medical Director, equity, inclusion, diversity at Mayo Clinic - bhagra.anjali@mayo.edu

• Diane Tran, System Executive Director, Community Health Equity and Engagement, MHealth Fairview - diane.tran@fairview.org

• Jackie Thomas-Hall, chief diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging officer, Allina Health - jacqueline.thomas-hall@allina.com

• Jennifer DeCubellis, CEO Hennepin Healthcare - jennifer.decubellis@hcmed.org

• Dr. Tenbit Emiru, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, UCare
  tEmiru@ucare.org

• Joy Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, UnitedHealth Group
  joy_fitzgerald@uhg.org

• Health Partners civil rights coordinator
  Integrityandcompliance@healthpartners.com

<<NAME>>

I commend you for your focus on health equity as well as your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. I know that one of your top goals is to make healthcare safe and accessible for all. With that in mind, I am asking you continue to maintain mandatory masking indefinitely for both patients and personnel in all medical facilities accepting <<INSURANCE NAME>>.

Black, Hispanic, Asian American Pacific Islander and Native patients all experience higher rates of severe respiratory illness, COVID infections with serious outcomes and deaths than other groups of patients, according to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the CDC and others. Black Americans are more likely to have cancer, Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to have kidney, liver and lung disease -- all conditions classified by the CDC as "high risk for long-term damage or death" from COVID and other respiratory illnesses.

If you are to support safe and accessible healthcare to ALL patients, an environment where your immunocompromised patients and those with other conditions classified as high-risk can receive healthcare safely, without further risk to their health and lives, you must required affiliated medical facilities to maintain mandatory masking in all medical settings for both patients and personnel. Implementing mandatory masking in healthcare settings increases health equity. ALL people can more safely access needed healthcare services with this universal policy around personal protection and source control.

Eliminating mandatory masking in healthcare settings has disparate impacts on different groups. Children under two and those at higher risk of severe outcomes from viruses and respiratory illnesses will be made even more vulnerable through any change in mandatory masking policy. Personal, one-way masking is not a substitute for source control offered by universal masking, a finding supported by multiple studies.

<<INSERT OPTIONAL PERSONAL STORY>>

I am happy to speak with other members of your DEI and ADA accessibility staff and committees regarding this subject. I also look forward to sharing this information with our local press outlets, particularly as they have been following your health equity journey.

I hope to receive confirmation soon that <<INSURANCE COMPANY NAME>> has committed to requiring mandatory masking in medical settings in-network indefinitely, especially after the national COVID-19 emergency declaration ends

Sincerely,
<YOUR NAME>

<<NAME>>-

I commend you for your focus on health equity as well as your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. I know that one of your top goals is to make healthcare safe and accessible for all. With that in mind, I am asking you continue to maintain mandatory masking indefinitely for both patients and personnel in all <<HOSPITAL SYSTEM NAME>> healthcare facilities.

Black, Hispanic, Asian American Pacific Islander and Native patients all experience higher rates of severe respiratory illness, COVID infections with serious outcomes and deaths than other groups of patients, according to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the CDC and others. Black Americans are more likely to have cancer, Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to have kidney, liver and lung disease -- all conditions classified by the CDC as "high risk for long-term damage or death" from COVID and other respiratory illnesses.

If you are to support safe and accessible healthcare to ALL patients, an environment where your immunocompromised patients and those with other conditions classified as high-risk can receive healthcare safely, without further risk to their health and lives, you must required affiliated medical facilities to maintain mandatory masking in all medical settings for both patients and personnel. Implementing mandatory masking in healthcare settings increases health equity. ALL people can more safely access needed healthcare services with this universal policy around personal protection and source control.

Eliminating mandatory masking in healthcare settings has disparate impacts on different groups. Children under two and those at higher risk of severe outcomes from viruses and respiratory illnesses will be made even more vulnerable through any change in mandatory masking policy. Personal, one-way masking is not a substitute for source control offered by universal masking, a finding supported by multiple studies.

<<INSERT OPTIONAL PERSONAL STORY>>

I am happy to speak with other members of your DEI and ADA accessibility staff and committees regarding this subject. I also look forward to sharing this information with our local press outlets, particularly as they have been following your health equity journey.

I hope to receive confirmation soon that <<HEALTH SYSTEM NAME>> has committed to requiring mandatory masking in all Mayo facilities, especially after the national COVID-19 emergency declaration ends.

Sincerely,
<YOUR NAME>