Health Equity

Marginal health equity for Black Californians suggests slow road ahead

April 24, 2024 - It’ll take California longer than it’s even been a state—and longer than the US has been a nation—to close the racial health disparity and other gulfs in equity for Black folks, according to a report from the Black Policy Project, which looks at equity within the state. Given the slow rate of improvement Black Americans have...

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Racial health disparities in premature death pervasive in all US states

by Sara Heath

Even in the best-performing states, racial health disparities have left their mark, with new reporting from the Commonwealth Fund showing serious differences in life expectancy and preventable deaths...

Paving the way to a diverse medical workforce starts with med schools

by Sara Heath

When the medical workforce is reflective of the patients it treats, everyone wins. But getting there isn’t going to be an overnight process; instead, leaders in medical education need to start focusing on creating pathways to a...

Disrespectful healthcare experience affects 33% of LGBT patients

by Sara Heath

A third of LGBT adult patients said they’ve had disrespectful healthcare experiences, a rate that’s double that for adults who do not identify as LGBT and should be a cause for concern for...

Nursing workforce diversity increases, but room for growth remains

by Sara Heath

The nursing field is getting closer to improving medical workforce diversity, with new figures from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) showing greater proportions of non-Hispanic...

Chronic care access limits diagnosis & quality for women

by Sara Heath

It could take more than a year longer for women to get a diagnosis for a chronic disease than it could for their male counterparts, with new survey data showing stark disparities in how women rate...

Health equity investment slated to continue into 2024

by Sara Heath

Health equity efforts will almost certainly maintain their pace over the next year, as healthcare leaders assert that equitable care and closing of heath disparities is a social, ethical, and political...

Patient portal message responses vary by race, ethnicity

by Sara Heath

The doctor is in? For Black patients sending patient portal messages, that might not be true, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open. The analysis of nearly 58,000 patient portal messages sent...

In medicine’s push for workforce diversity, culture of belonging is key

by Sara Heath

In the past decade, and especially in the last five years, healthcare has been working to crack the code of embedding antiracism into the fabric of the industry through workforce diversity. But far from the quotas sometimes conjured when...

Did COVID-19 Help Close Disparities in Patient Portal Use?

by Sara Heath

The COVID-19 pandemic may have increased patient portal use and reduced age- and sex-based utilization disparities, but there are still differences in how often people of certain races and health...

A Third of Americans Say Racism Is a Major Problem in Healthcare

by Sara Heath

Although nearly a third of the American public thinks racism in medicine is a major problem, that proportion is actually much lower than the public perception of other sectors, potentially signaling a...

Racially Diverse ZIP Codes See Disparities in MAT Access

by Sara Heath

ZIP codes with more racial and ethnic diversity have markedly fewer buprenorphine prescribers and far lower rates of dispensed buprenorphine prescriptions, according to researchers from the University...

Half of Healthcare Staff Report Racism & Discrimination Against Patients

by Sara Heath

Nearly half of healthcare providers have borne witness to healthcare discrimination, doubling down on a patient experience and health equity problem that’s shown to impact patients of color and...

Updated HHS Health Equity Action Plan Focuses on Care Access

by Sara Heath

HHS has unveiled the 2023 update to its Health Equity Action Plan, hitting key points like childhood health and well-being, equitable access to care, and maternal and infant health equity, among other...

Gender-Affirming Care Access Laws Affect 38% of Trans Youth

by Sara Heath

Nearly two-fifths of trans youth ages 13 to 17 live in a state with legal restrictions to gender-affirming care access, which is the result of 23 states enacting such policies, according to a new KFF...

Preventable Hospitalizations More Common for Black Patients

by Sara Heath

Black Medicaid enrollees are more likely to experience a preventable hospitalization than their White counterparts, according to a new report, a trend that researchers at the Urban Institute said...

Cultural Competence in Healthcare: Why It’s Important & How to Build It

by Sara Heath

Healthcare is undergoing a seismic shift, with the role of public and population health playing a bigger role in patient care than ever before. Core to that role is the increased focus on health disparities, health equity, and cultural...

What Is Health Equity? Tracing Equity Origins & Progress Today

by Sara Heath

Health equity isn’t just another industry buzzword. As the medical industry works toward true health and well-being for all, health equity has emerged as a critical goal for payers, providers, and healthcare policymakers. Still, the...

HHS Finalizes Religious Rights Rules Protecting Patient Care Access

by Sara Heath

HHS has finalized the last piece of the puzzle to restore the government’s process for handling complaints of conscience and religious discrimination, which the agency said will improve patient...

Data Reveals How Health Outcomes Link to Structural Racism

by Sara Heath

A recent study from researchers out of Mount Sinai is providing data to support what many have argued in the past few years, that structural racism is linked to poorer health outcomes. The study,...