Major Health Plans and Organizations Join Ahrq to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

U.S. Newswire › December 14, 2004

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Summary

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) today announced a new public-private partnership, the National Health Plan Learning Collaborative to Reduce Disparities and Improve Quality, which is designed to help reduce disparities in health care for people with diabetes and other conditions. This collaborative brings together nine of the nation's largest health insurance plans: Aetna, CIGNA, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, HealthPartners, Highmark Inc., Kaiser Permanente, Molina Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group (UnitedHealthcare, Ovations and AmeriChoice) and WellPoint, Inc., as well as several other organizations.

This collaborative is the first national effort of its kind to go beyond research and actively tackle racial and ethnic inequities in health care service delivery. Nationally, only one- fifth of patients with diabetes receive routinely recommended health care services, including eye exams, flu shots, blood sugar (hemoglobin A1c) tests, foot exams and cholesterol screening, according to AHRQ's National Healthcare Quality Report released in December 2003. Blacks, Hispanics and people who live in poor neighborhoods are even less likely to receive these services and consequently are hospitalized more often for complications of diabetes, according to AHRQ's National Healthcare Disparities Report. The 2004 versions of both reports are expected to be released soon.

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Major Health Plans and Organizations Join Ahrq to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care

"All of us in the collaborative are committed to addressing the issue of disparities in health care," said ...

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