Health Equity

Does Medicare Value-Based Purchasing Exacerbate Racial Care Disparities?

January 9, 2024 - 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 Purchasing (VBP) Program may exacerbate racial care disparities. Black adults in the United States tend to face worse health outcomes for acute medical...

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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,...

CMS Updates ACO REACH Model for 2024 to Improve Health Equity

by Victoria Bailey

CMS has announced revisions to the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) model to improve health equity and predictability for participants. CMS replaced the Direct...

Hospitals with Health Equity Factors Face Value-Based Penalties

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Hospitals with more medically complex patients, uncompensated care, and patients who live alone are more likely to receive a penalty under CMS value-based payment programs, according to a new study...

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...

CMS Releases FY24 IPPS Proposed Rule, Seeks to Boost Rates by 2.8%

by Jacqueline LaPointe

CMS has released a proposed rule for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS). The proposed rule would update hospital payment rates by 2.8 percent next fiscal year and...

AAMC: Gender and Racial Diversity On the Rise in US Physician Workforce

by Victoria Bailey

Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) detailed physician workforce trends and highlighted how gender and racial diversity are increasing among medical residents and...

Should Population-Based Payments Account for Social Risk Factors?

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Efforts to make the healthcare system more efficient and equitable by adjusting population-based payments for social risk factors may be missing the mark, suggests a new study from Harvard and Yale....

340B Hospitals Treated High Shares of Underserved Populations

by Victoria Bailey

Compared to non-340B hospitals, 340B hospitals provided care for a higher share of historically underserved populations, including dual eligible beneficiaries, people with disabilities, and Black...

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...

Advocate Aurora Health, Atrium Health to Create Joint Health System

by Victoria Bailey

Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health have announced plans to merge into a joint health system and combine their clinical knowledge to provide care and improve health equity for patients across six...

CMS Proposes $1.6B Increase in IPPS Payment Rates for FY23

by Victoria Bailey

CMS has released its Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposed rule for fiscal year 2023, which includes a payment rate boost for general acute care hospitals and new measures...

Coronavirus Healthcare Spending Dwindles, Threatening Health Equity

by Hayden Schmidt

The coronavirus pandemic spawned a wave of government spending that increased health equity for uninsured or underprivileged people and encouraged access to care for all. That wave of funding is now drying up, with billions of dollars set...

AMA Framework to Help Orgs Invest in, Advance Health Equity

by Victoria Bailey

The American Medical Association (AMA) is seeking to advance health equity through an initiative that provides participating healthcare organizations with an investment framework that prioritizes the...

NAACOS Launches Coalition for ACO REACH Model Participants

by Victoria Bailey

The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) has launched a coalition to help providers learn about and prepare for the new ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) model. The coalition...

Healthcare CFOs Plan to Invest in Patients, Partnerships in 2022

by Victoria Bailey

After nearly two years in a global pandemic, the healthcare industry has faced numerous hurdles. But healthcare chief financial officers (CFOs) have high hopes for the upcoming year and plan to improve...

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...

Kaiser Permanente Paying $11.5M in Equal Pay, Racial Equity Case

by Jacqueline LaPointe

Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California has agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle claims it illegally denied thousands of Black employees equal pay and promotions, according to an announcement from...

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