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CENTER FOR MEDICAID, CHIP AND SURVEY & CERTIFICATION (CMCS)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Center for Medicaid, CHIP and Survey & Certification (CMCS) has been active in health disparity reductions. CMCS is the primary focal point for all CMS Medicaid-related activities. CMCS has significantly improved the number of minority and/or low-income children who have access to much needed health care. State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), an initiative that funds services to more than 5 million children, nationwide, is one program that has helped decrease disparities. Additionally, CMSC serves as CMS' primary center for the implementation of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA), which regulates laboratory testing (excluding research) performed on humans in the United States.
Health Care Disparities
As part of CMS' overarching initiative to support health care quality improvement to underserved Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, CMCS engages in intra-agency, private, and public sector collaboration with States, various community-based organizations, stakeholders, and underserved communities interested in addressing health disparities by incorporating a health disparities component into the Agency's quality initiatives and providing beneficiaries with information about CMS' programs.
According to the 2010 National Healthcare Disparities Report, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), though there are differences in care seeking behavior, which are attributable to factors that include cultural beliefs, linguistics, and lifestyle choices, health disparities often represent an 'inequality in quality' and usually lacks the necessary framework for quality as defined by the Institute of Medicine (IOM): patient safety, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency and equity. CMCS supports efforts to achieve safe, effective, efficient, patient-centered, timely and equitable care, and has been active in health disparity reductions. CMCS works in partnership to achieve the health disparities' goals recommended by IOM by engaging states, providers, consumers and others in implementing evidence-based care, rewarding quality performance, controlling costs, and promoting the use of information technology. The vision, as noted in the CMS Quality Improvement Roadmap, is the right care for every person.