Racial inequality in top Medicare plans - Health Care - MSNBC.com: The extent to which patients have their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar under control is considered a key indicator of health plan quality. Studies have long pointed to health disparities between white and black Americans, but the new research shows that this is not because black Americans are more often stuck in lower-quality health plans.
Of the 151 Medicare health plans Trivedi's team analyzed, racial disparities were seen within individual plans, including 'high-performing' ones where a relatively high percentage of patients had their high blood pressure, cholesterol or blood sugar in check.
Overall, the proportion of African Americans who had these conditions under control was 6.8 to 14.4 percentage points lower compared with whites.
'We know that people who have their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar controlled are less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die prematurely,' Trivedi told Reuters Health.
