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No Racial Disparities In Surgical Care Quality Observed After Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting In TRICARE Patients

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Submitted by

Arie Blitz

Source

Source Name: Health Affairs

Source URL: https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00265

Author(s)

Muhammad Ali Chaudhary, Elzerie de Jager, Nizar Bhulani, Nicollette K. Kwon, Adil H. Haider, Eric Goralnick, Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos, Andrew J. Schoenfeld

The authors in this study ask—given the known racial disparities in the US healthcare system—what happens in a universal insurance program like TRICARE in terms of quality of care after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)? Using the TRICARE database, the authors retrospectively analyzed the postoperative care of CABG patients using National Quality Forum metrics. They found that there were no risk-adjusted differences in outcomes between black and white patients.

Of what relevance are the results of this study, in terms of the impact of universal health insurance, on access to quality care based on race?