Medicare (Title XVIII of the Social Security Act)
Addressing Health Care Disparities

Addressing Health Care Disparities312

The Secretary evaluated approaches for collection of Medicare data that allow for the evaluation of disparities in health care services and performance on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender.313  In conducting such evaluation, the Secretary considered the objective of protecting patient privacy.314  The Secretary submitted to Congress a report on this evaluation that identified approaches for identifying, collecting and evaluating data on health care disparities for the original fee-for-service program under Parts A and B, the Medicare Advantage program under Part C and the Medicare prescription drug program under Part D.315  In the report, the Secretary included recommendations on the most effective strategies and approaches to reporting HEDIS quality measures (as required under § 1852(e)(3)) and other nationally recognized quality performance measures on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender.316  By 24 months, the Secretary will implement the approaches identified in this report for the ongoing, accurate and timely collection and evaluation of data on health care disparities.317  By four years, and every four years thereafter, the Secretary will submit a report to Congress that includes recommendations for improving the identification of health care disparities for Medicare beneficiaries based on analyses of the data collected using these approaches.318