Health Affairs Forefront: How Medicare Advantage Could Address Pain Inequities For Black Patients Living With Serious Illness
Health Affairs Forefront has published a Center to Advance Palliative Care blog, "How Medicare Advantage Could Address Pain Inequities For Black Patients Living With Serious Illness."
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), with support from the Commonwealth Fund, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and The John A. Hartford Foundation, launched its Equitable Access to Quality Palliative Care for Black Patients project to better understand and mitigate the effects of racism on Black patients with serious illness. In this Forefront article, CAPC discusses one particular area of concern and proposes practical strategies that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans—through which nearly half of Black Medicare beneficiaries receive care—can use to support equitable, high-quality care for Black patients living with serious illness.
The blog lays out five actions that the CAPC authors recommend MA plans take, some of which may also be implemented in traditional Medicare through alternative payment models. The authors note that, "By implementing policies and practices that ensure reliable pain and symptom management, MA plans can mitigate suffering for all patients with serious illness while taking aim at racial inequity."
Read the blog.
Learn more about CAPC's Equitable Access to Quality Palliative Care for Black Patients project.
Learn more about JAHF's support of CAPC.
