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Disparities

Racial and ethnic disparities in health and in health care are well documented. Racial and ethnic minority groups face disparities in the incidence of disease and mortality across a wide range of health conditions, as well as in access to health care, and in satisfaction with the quality of care received.  States undertake a variety of strategies to reduce and eliminate these disparities and promote equity in health and health care.  NASHP’s work on health disparities covers many of these approaches, such as health promotion tailored for specific racial and ethnic minority groups, the purchasing and/or regulation of health care services to address disparities, and the collection of race/ethnicity data for quality improvement, performance measurement, public reporting, and strategic planning.   NASHP projects and publications about health system improvement more broadly also incorporate lessons about disparities in health and health care.

Acting as a subcontractor to Thomson Reuters, NASHP has supported the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), and has produced a number of materials about the collection, analysis, and use of race/ethnicity data in conjunction with state disparities reduction and health equity initiatives. These resources are all available on the HCUP website and include:

As NASHP continues its collaboration with HCUP and AHRQ, more resources will be added to the HCUP website. This includes two more issue briefs: one on integrating state efforts to reduce health and health care disparities with health reform implementation, and a second on achieving data driven interventions designed to eliminate disparities and improve health outcomes.