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Vital Signs

Employee Benefits Managers Clueless About Minority Health Disparities

The earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Many Americans of color do not receive the same quality of health care as whites.

While very few people need to be persuaded that these first two statements are true, a great many Americans still seem to be in the dark about the fact that minority health care disparities exist, despite a growing number of major national studies calling attention to the problem. Unfortunately, the results of a recent survey by the Washington Business Group on Health (WBGH) reveal that this “Clueless Club” has many members who are employee benefits managers at large U.S. corporations--people who are responsible for providing health insurance plans to millions of racially, ethnically and culturally diverse American workers.

The survey, conducted in fall 2003, randomly sampled 7,500 U.S. companies that employ more than 1,000 workers. Of the 1,505 benefits managers who responded, the vast majority--about 70%--said they believed Americans of color were just as likely as whites to receive appropriate care of serious conditions like heart disease and cancer. Yet studies like the Institute of Medicine’s 2002 report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care have shown that minority patients are less likely than whites to be given appropriate cardiac medications, undergo bypass surgery or get appropriate cancer diagnostic tests and treatment.

Moreover, nearly half of the responding benefits managers stated that minority health care disparities “weren’t a problem” for their employees, even though 80% had never asked minority employees about the effect of their race on their health care.

In response to these findings, WBGH--a national non-profit organization representing large private- and public-sector employers who provide health care benefits for their workers--has issued several recommendations. For example, the group is encouraging employers to choose health insurance plans that include minority physicians in their provider networks, as well as doctors who speak Spanish and are familiar with minority health concerns.