Research Examines Access, Quality of Care for Women, Children, Minorities - USA

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 23 Mar 2005 - 11:00 PDT

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The following summarizes select reports from the February issue of the... Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

• "Access for Pregnant Women on Medicaid: Variation by Race and Ethnicity": The report, by Kathleen Adams, a professor at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health; Norma Gavin, a senior research economist in Health, Social and Economics Research at RTI International; and Beth Benedict, a social science research analyst at CMS' Office of Research, Development and Information, examines racial health disparities among pregnant women in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Texas. According to the report, the presence and use of safety-net providers increased prenatal care among minority women, leading the researchers to recommend policies that maintain safety-net providers and that encourage office-based physicians to serve all racial and ethnic groups (Adams et al., Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, February 2005).
  
  
• "The Relationship Between SCHIP Enrollment and Hospitalizations for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in California: The study, by Dustin Bermudez, a student at the Stanford University School of Medicine's Department of Health Research and Policy; and Laurence Baker, an associate professor of health research and policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of health services research at the National Bureau of Economic Research, examines how the implementation of the SCHIP program in California affected hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions, a factor that can indicate primary care quality and access. According to the study, California's SCHIP program has a "strong beneficial effect" on primary care for enrolled children (Bermudez/Baker, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, February 2005).
  
  
• "Do Managed Care Plans Reduce Racial Disparities in Preventive Care?": The study, by Chyongchiou Jeng Lin, an associate professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Radiation Oncology; Donald Musa, a senior research associate at the University Center for Social and Urban Research; and colleagues, explores whether managed care can reduce racial disparities in the distribution of the flu vaccine, mammogram screenings and prostate screenings. According to the study, which examined adults ages 65 and older who were enrolled in a Medicare managed care or fee-for-service plan in Allegheny County, Penn., a managed care plan did not reduce racial health disparities. The study notes that reducing disparities could require interventions aimed at specific racial and ethnic groups (Lin et al., Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, February 2005).
  

Abstracts of the studies are available online.

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