Value-based care, which emerged more than two decades ago, has had a limited effect on racial health disparities in the U.S., according to a Sept. 3 article in Health Affairs.
"Black Americans in particular are more likely than white Americans to suffer from cardiovascular disease, maternal mortality and poor cancer outcomes," said authors Ayotomiwa Ojo and Parsa Erfani, both MD candidates at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Neel Shah, MD, an assistant professor there. "Moreover, Black patients are more likely than white patients to receive care at underresourced safety-net hospitals that consistently score lower on patient experience compared to non-safety-net hospitals. They are also more likely to receive low-value care."
The authors proposed three strategies for incorporating racial justice into value-based care:
- Including equity in pay-for-performance
- Investing in evidence-based community health models
- Increasing accountability for community impact investments
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