Study finds racial disparities in quality of care

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If you're black, over 65 and on Medicare, chances are you are receiving inferior medical care compared to your white counterparts, according to a new study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School analyzed national data designed to assess quality of care for more than 305,000 Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in managed health care plans.

Here's what they found:

"The good news here is that for breast cancer screening the gap in disparities between blacks and whites in managed care plans is smaller than prior studies have found," said Dr. Eric Schneider, lead author of the study.

"On the other hand, the level of disparity for blacks receiving follow-up after hospitalization for mental illness has not been studied before and the gap in quality of service is quite large."

Although the study looked at Medicare beneficiaries, the Harvard researchers said some features of managed care health plans could actually help reduce racial disparities.

The gaps could be lessened by requiring patients to enroll with a primary care physician, by targeting outreach to special needs populations, and with case-management programs for patients with chronic conditions.

The study authors concluded, however, if managed care companies focus only on the bottom line and raise the bar on who gets access, they predicted blacks would likely suffer an even greater share of the diseases that already are disproportionately higher among that group.

"The results suggest that all categories of health plans need to make special efforts not only to improve the quality of care for all enrollees, but also to address the issue of racial disparities and strive toward eliminating them," Schneider said.