Oral

In its report on health disparities, the Institute of Medicine acknowledges that racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive a lower quality of healthcare than non-minorities and are less likely to receive routine medical procedures. This session will focus on various strategies to reduce disparities and improve health outcomes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Medicare programs across the country have a tremendous interest in decreasing health disparities. CMS's activities are primarily aimed at supporting states through its Quality Improvement Organization program, which focuses on eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities in clinical areas such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, mammography, cancer, influenza, and pneumonia by using targeted prevention measures to improve clinical outcomes. Another way to reduce disparities will be discussed: increasing access to care including insurance expansion to reduce financial barriers. We also will discuss partnerships aimed reducing teen pregnancy, and describe structures and processes that have been developed to produce structural change to reduce childhood obesity.

Session Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be better able to: • Discuss ways to eliminate health disparities using evidence based practices across care continuum • Understand the role of access coalitions and stakeholder collaboration in expanding access to health care • Articulate barriers to state-local collaboration • Define multiple levels of structural change

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing