Guidance for the National Healthcare Disparities Report

Abstract

Disparities in health care are among this nation’s most serious health care problems. Research has extensively documented the pervasiveness of racial and ethnic disparities. Minorities receive poorer quality care in such important areas as cardiovascul disease, cancer, asthma, and diabetes (IOM, 2002b). Research has also extensively documented geographic disparities, with levels of health care quality varying by region and state (Dartmouth Atlas Care Working Group, 1999; Jencks et al., 2000). Socioeconomic disparities are also quite common: millions of low income Americans lack insurance and receive poorer health care quality overall (IOM, 2002a). As part of a national effort to eliminate health care disparities, Congress in 1999 required the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ) to produce a new annual report to be called the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR).