AHRQ data show quality improving but disparities remain

Modern Healthcare: Quality Improves, Disparities Linger: AHRQ
The latest data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality brought more of the usual news: modest gains in health care quality but persistent racial and income disparities. According to the AHRQ's 2010 State Snapshots, a benchmarking tool released June 1, five states — New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island — topped the list for improved health care quality in 2010. Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas had the smallest improvements in performance. Health care disparities were widespread although racial and economic gaps in quality and access to care varied from state to state (McKinney, 6/1).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.