Care Disparities

Medical Debt Associated With Worse Population Health, Higher Mortality

March 8, 2024 - Medical debt was associated with worse population health, including poor physical and mental health and higher mortality rates, a study published in JAMA Network Open indicated. Medical debt can force patients to delay or forgo care, hinder medication adherence, and exacerbate existing health disparities. Certain populations are particularly...

Read More


More Articles

Does Medicare Value-Based Purchasing Exacerbate Racial Care Disparities?

by Victoria Bailey

Thirty-day mortality rates were higher for acute myocardial infarction and pneumonia at hospitals with higher shares of Black patients, suggesting that Medicare’s Hospital Value-Based...

Diverse Medical Students More Likely to Practice in Underserved Areas

by Victoria Bailey

Less than 30 percent of medical students planned to practice in underserved areas between 2019 and 2021; those who did were more likely to be students of color, women, and part of the LGBTQ community,...

Middle-Class Americans Face Highest Rates of Medical Debt Burden

by Victoria Bailey

Middle-class Americans have the most medical debt across all ages, races, and education levels, a new report found. The report from think tank organization Third Way used the Census’s Survey of...

Medical Debt Unevenly Impacts People of Color, Low-Income Residents in NY

by Victoria Bailey

Medical debt in New York State varied widely by geography in 2022, with debt more common among communities of color and those with low incomes, highlighting disparities. The Urban Institute report...

Racial and Ethnic Health Inequities Led to $421B in Excess Spending

by Victoria Bailey

The economic burden of health inequities ranged from $421 billion to $978 billion in 2018, suggesting more resources are needed to improve health equity for racial and ethnic minorities and people with...

Health Disparities in Heart Failure Admissions Cost Over $60M

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Health inequity is costing the Medicare program more than $60 million on preventable heart failure hospital admissions, suggests a new study out of Tulane University. The study published in the most...

Community-Level Social Risk Adjustment Did Not Address Payment Disparities

by Victoria Bailey

Despite the notion that social risk adjustment may improve health equity in value-based payment models, incorporating community-level social risk factors into Medicare risk adjustment did little to...

CJR Model Policy Changes Boosted Penalties for Safety-Net Hospitals

by Victoria Bailey

Safety-net hospitals and hospitals with high Black and Hispanic populations received disproportionate penalties under the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled payment model between...

Medicare, Medicaid DSH Payment Methods Exacerbate Racial Disparities

by Victoria Bailey

Disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments from Medicare and Medicaid may further racial disparities by basing allocations on patient healthcare use, a study published in JAMA Network Open...

MSSP Exit More Common Among ACOs Serving Racial, Ethnic Minorities

by Victoria Bailey

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) that serve a high proportion of racial and ethnic minorities were more likely to exit the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) compared to ACOs serving mostly...

CMS Analysis Reveals Implicit Bias in Healthcare, Value-Based Payment

by Jacqueline LaPointe

An internal analysis of three CMS Innovation Center models revealed instances of implicit bias in healthcare, which disproportionately impacted people of color and low-income individuals. CMS...

Health Inequity Leads to $320B in Unnecessary Healthcare Spending

by Victoria Bailey

Health inequities account for around $320 billion in annual healthcare spending, a figure that could reach $1 trillion by 2040 if stakeholders do not act accordingly, according to data from...

The Role of Finance, Revenue Cycle in Advancing Health Equity

by Jacqueline LaPointe

2020 was a pivotal year for healthcare. Not only did the industry face the worst public health crisis in modern history, but it, like the country at large, also came up against a historic social movement spurred by the death of George...

Medicaid Expansion Associated with Less Medical Debt Collections

by Jill McKeon

States that expanded Medicaid in 2014 saw a 45 percent decline in the mean flow of medical debt collections compared to states that chose not to expand Medicaid or those that expanded after 2014,...

CJR Model Linked to Increased Health Disparities, Study Reveals

by Jill McKeon

In a study of over four million Medicare beneficiaries, researchers found that the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) model may be widening racial and socioeconomic health disparities in...

Safety-Net Hospital Profitability Sinks as Demand Rises

by Jill McKeon

The COVID-19 pandemic has put significant strain on safety-net hospital profitability, as explored in The Healthcare Divide, a new documentary from FRONTLINE, NPR, and American University’s...

VA Rule Allows Interstate Care Delivery, Promotes Care Access

by Hannah Nelson

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has issued an interim final rule affirming the agency’s current policy that allows interstate care delivery for VA healthcare professionals, ultimately...

CMS: Value-Based Reimbursement Key to Addressing Health Disparities

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Article updated 06/24/2020 to include a statement from the National Association of ACOs. Health disparities proven by Medicare claims data during the COVID-19 crisis underscore the need to transition...

Cost Disparities Spell Trouble for Healthcare Price Transparency

by Samantha McGrail

The national disparity between gross charges for hospital procedures is substantial, at an average of 297 percent difference between the lowest and highest gross charge for each individual procedure,...

Recent Articles