CMSHealthDisparitie

As previously stated, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) addresses health disparities by integrating health disparities initiatives cross-functionally. In this section, you will learn about different programs within the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality (OCSQ) division of CMS, such as the initiative through the Coverage & Analysis Group where they are trying to increase the number of minority clinical trials to better improve the treatment and outcomes for under-served populations.

The Quality Improvement Group's approach is unique from the other programs within OCSQ, in that, for the first time, health disparities have been integrated across all Quality Improvement Organization’s 9th Scope of Work Themes and Sub-National Task areas. CMS utilizes Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) to carry out this initiative. The Quality Improvement Group has
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...to the CMS Portal to Understanding Learning, Sharing and Educating (PULSE) Health Disparities Web Site where we will be reporting on our progress in reducing health disparities for our Medicare beneficiaries in priority populations.

Health disparities can have different meanings, but for our purposes, we are using the description based on the Institute of Medicine’s report on Unequal Treatment whereby it states that racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States tend to receive lower quality health care than the White population. We have expanded this definition to also include rural communities as well because we see parallels in both segments.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been addressing health disparities for the last two decades, and has many health disparities programs underway that you will learn more about through this site. The Office of Clinical Standards and Quality has been exceptionally active in the design and implementation of health disparity initiatives. As reducing health disparities is such an important aspect of our mission to provide quality health care for all, we want to make our findings as transparent as possible by providing you this Portal.

Welcome to the CMS PULSE Web site.