Abha Agrawal: “Disparities” in how physicians and healthcare organizations get paid for care

Abha Agrawal, President and CEO of Lawrence General Hospital, shared on LinkedIn:

“Over the last 3 years, health equity and equitable outcomes for all patients have received a lot of attention. It is considered a quality imperative, economic imperative, social justice imperative, etc.

However, I am deeply intrigued that there is another type of injustice and inequity that seem to receive relatively scant attention.

And that is rampant ‘disparities’ in how physicians and healthcare organizations get paid for care.

According to this The Commonwealth Fund 2022 article:
Reimbursement rates for commercial payors >> Medicare >> Medicaid.
For Physicians, commercial rate is 30% higher than Medicare, Medicare is 30% higher than Medicaid.
For hospitals, commercial rate is up to 90% higher than Medicare, Medicare is 22% higher than Medicaid.

Racial/ethnic minorities have greater share of Medicaid and therefore the eck is stacked against them in terms of access to care, quality of care, patient safety and health equity.

If providing equitable outcomes is a fundamental responsibility of healthcare professionals, paying equitably for the work done should be a fundamental responsibility of healthcare payors.

I think it would be hard to accomplish health equity unless we address this disparity.
I hope for a greater momentum to address and mitigate these disparities at local, state and federal levels.”

Source: Abha Agrawal/LinkedIn