Recorded presentation

Steve Hitov, JD¹, Doreena Wong, JD¹, and Violet Ryo-Hwa Woo, MS, MPH². (1) National Health Law Program, Inc., 1101 14th Street, N.W., Suite #405, Washington, DC 20005, 202-289-7661, hitov@healthlaw.org, (2) Office of Minority Health/OPHS, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/OS, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852

Racial and ethnic minorities suffer impeded access to health services and poorer quality of care, are less likely to have health insurance, and have worse outcomes compared to Whites. Racial and ethnic data are not routinely collected by many health service delivery systems or insurers, due in part to confusion about whether laws and regulations prohibit or allow such data collection. Lack of data is a barrier to performance measurement and clinical quality improvement efforts.

The Office of Minority Health has contracted the National Health Law Program, Inc. to review state policies and practices concerning the collection of r/e data by health insurers and managed care plans. Phase I involved analyzing statutes and policies of the 50 states and the District of Columbia via computerized legal research systems, Web sites and public record requests. Four states—CA, MD, NH and NJ—have some prohibitions against health insurers and/or HMOs collecting r/e data. No policy was found requiring the collection. Texas requires the collection of primary language data.

Phase II involves visits to selected jurisdictions to interview state Departments, private insurance, and managed care organizations regarding their understanding of the state’s policies as they relate to collecting r/e data. Practice and/or policy to collect r/e data or request justification for collecting such data was found.

An understanding of state provisions regarding the collection and reporting of r/e data is needed to accurately measure the health status of and quality of services for underserved populations and to address r/e health disparities.

Learning Objectives: