Reducing racial disparities in coronary angiography.
Racial disparities in cardiac services are well documented; however, policies to close these gaps have not been studied. This paper evaluates a New Jersey certificate-of-need reform to reduce disparities in diagnostic coronary angiography. The number of angiography facilities in New Jersey doubled following reform, and a large black-white disparity was eliminated-a trend not observed in nearby states. Surprisingly, increases in service to African American patients following reform were concentrated in hospitals licensed before reform, while the newly licensed facilities contributed relatively little to reducing disparities. We hypothesize that added hospital competition contributed to the reduction in disparities.
Cantor
Joel C
JC
Center for State Health Policy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. jcantor@ifh.rutgers.edu
DeLia
Derek
D
Tiedemann
Amy
A
Stanley
Ava
A
Kronebusch
Karl
K
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002300:Cardiac Care Facilities / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002567:Certificate of Need; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000592:standards*; D033161:Government Regulation; D018166:Health Care Reform; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008004:Licensure; D009515:New Jersey; D013219:State Government; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data