Center on Health Equity & Access

Interviews with Katherine Meese, PhD, of University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Nadine Barrett, PhD, MS, MPH, of Wake Forest University, from day 2 of the Association of Cancer Care Centers 50th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit (ACCC AMCCBS).

Speakers at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis Forum 2024 focused their attention on avenues to improve research accessibility for investigators and care access for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Advocates for health insurance reform indicate the need to make system-wide, policy-level changes to improve patient outcomes, which include investing in improved access to care and lowering the burden of administrative costs.

In a recent presentation featured at the Midwest Business Group on Health's Mental Health Forum, an expert shed light on the evolving landscape shaped by the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Treatment Act.

Congress is unlikely to include many major health care priorities in the next government funding package; many adults continue to see racism as a problem across aspects of US society; the Endocrine Society will review its clinical guidelines for gender-affirming care.

The Democratic Women’s Caucus is urging insurers to comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraception requirement to cover birth control without cost sharing.

Fabiola Molina, MD, MHS, is a practicing hospitalist and assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital. An immigrant from Mexico, her experiences straddling 2 worlds, while attempting to navigate with her family the complicated safety-net system for health care in Texas, were key influences to her ardent focus on health equity.

This week's news from the Center on Health Equity and Access discusses racial disparities in prostate cancer outcomes, the impact of access to cancer care on racial gaps in CLL/SLL outcomes, the effects of 340B programs on drug pricing and health care disparities, the role of mental illness in maternal mortality rates, and racial bias and diagnosis disparities in bipolar disorder.

Patients with ovarian cancer living in rural areas reported less improvement in psychological function compared with patients living in urban areas in the year following ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Shauna Downs, PhD, MS, is an associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health. A former figure skater, her research now focuses on interventions to promote healthy and sustainable food choices and exploring how our changing climate, food systems, diet, and nutrition are inextricably linked.

In honor of Black History Month, Leesha Ellis-Cox, MD, MPH, sheds light on the racial disparities in mental health care and the prevalence of misdiagnosis.

Strengthening parity in insurance coverage of mental and physical health care benefits is critical for addressing the maternal mental health crisis.

In part 2 of our interview with Robinson, he addresses the potential for exacerbated health care disparities in the aftermath of hospital price markups and how insurance plan design often disadvantages the patients who most need expensive infusion therapies but cannot afford them.

No difference in overall survival was observed between patients of different races who had chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) and received cancer care or had access to a hematologist/oncologist.

Carrie Kozlowski, OT, MBA highlights 3 key trends shaping the future of health care: a focus on health equity with actionable strategies for equitable access to care, a transition toward responsible AI utilization, and a push to maximize the potential of patient data while addressing privacy concerns.

Despite socioeconomic and biological differences that contribute to disparities between Black men and White men with prostate cancer, improved access has been shown to reduce the gaps, explained Jun Gong, MD, of Cedars Sinai.

This week in health equity and access includes challenges for independent physicians due to Medicare cuts, inequities in access to State Health Insurance Assistance Program counseling, a study on patient experiences in national health plans, strategies for building trust in cancer care, and increasing breast cancer rates in young Black women.

The study was the first of its kind to analyze social deprivation among CLL patients and observe the underlying reasons behind their clinical outcomes.

Medicare beneficiaries are beginning to see the first savings from the Inflation Reduction Act; abortion pills prescribed to patients via telehealth and the mail are safe; nearly half of health care workers have witnessed racism or discrimination in their workplace.

Carrie Kozlowski, OT, MBA, chief operating officer and cofounder of Upfront Healthcare, explains how the company emphasizes personalized engagement to overcome technological, cultural, and social barriers while Medicaid disenrollment rates are increasing.

Researchers have identified a surge in breast cancer rates among young women and racial disparities across age groups.

Combining interventions to encourage screenings for colorectal cancer (CRC) and social determinants of health (SDOH) was found to improve screening rates in CRC without decreasing rates of screenings for SDOH.

Part of the recent Medicare reimbursement cuts could be addressed in a spending package next month; Medicaid/Medicare dual eligibles are expected to generate big profits for health insurers; FDA sent warning letters to online vendors selling unapproved and misbranded versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide.

"I'll say what I don't think the issue is—it's not technology. We can solve this problem with technology," Carrie Kozlowski, OT, MBA, explains in the interview.