|
Activity Number:
|
274
|
|
Type:
|
Topic Contributed
|
|
Date/Time:
|
Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
|
|
Sponsor:
|
Section on Health Policy Statistics*
|
| Abstract - #300867 |
|
Title:
|
Racial Disparities in HEDIS Measures of Health Care
|
|
Author(s):
|
Alan Zaslavsky*+ and Eric Schneider and Arnold Epstein
|
|
Affiliation(s):
|
Harvard University and Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health
|
|
Address:
|
180 Longwood Ave., Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA
|
|
Keywords:
|
quality measurement ; variance components ; ecological differences
|
|
Abstract:
|
The HEDIS(R) measures of health care quality use health plan administrative records to estimate rates at which specific clinically-indicated services are provided to patients. Data from Medicare managed care HEDIS provide an opportunity to estimate race-related disparities in care. We analyzed data on four HEDIS measures and found that there were substantial disparities in rates at which services were provided to white and African-American Medicare beneficiaries in managed care. We further decomposed these disparities into a component that was explained by differential enrollment by race in high- and low-performing plans, and another component due to differences by race within the same plan. For one measure (mammography) the differences were largely between plans, while for others the differences were primarily within plan. Further research should address the causes of these disparities.
|
