Assessing the Costs of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: State Experience

Health disparities cost the United States billions of dollars in direct medical expenditures in addition to the human costs. In an effort to improve quality and contain costs states are taking steps to measure these costs and address disparities. This issue brief, which features Virginia and Rhode Island, was prepared by NASHP authors Carrie Hanlon and Larry Hinkle for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).  It focuses on tools, challenges, and strategies states use to measure the costs of health disparities.