Healthcare leaders navigate pushback to health equity programs

Healthcare leaders navigate pushback to health equity programs
Modern Healthcare; by Mari Devereaux; 8/27/24
Brewing opposition to health systems' programs on equitable care for patients of color could make health systems need to justify or reframe their efforts. A nonprofit conservative law firm earlier this month filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Health and Human Services Department against Cleveland Clinic, alleging its minority stroke program and minority men’s center discriminate against other patients. The center and program offer treatments, prevention services and specialist referrals tailored to meet the needs of Black and Latino patients... [Alternatively...] “There's a war on DEI and health equity right now, because people don't really understand what's happening in these programs,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. Health equity programs aren’t giving more care to one patient versus another based on race or ethnicity, Benjamin said. Instead, they are identifying high-risk patients with a likelihood for poor outcomes, who are often people of color, and putting together resources to help those individuals get the same care as others, he said.