Energy and Commerce Democrats hold forum on 'achieving health equity'

House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats, along with the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, today marked the end of National Minority Health Month by holding a forum on “Achieving Health Equity.” The forum focused on racial and ethnic disparities in the treatment and prevention of heart disease, as well as the need for diversity in clinical trials and to build a diverse and culturally competent health care workforce. Kim Williams, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiology at Rush University Medical Center, emphasized the need for policymakers to adjust Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program measures for socioeconomic factors, noting that the three factors that predict whether a hospital receives readmissions penalties are the education, poverty and unemployment levels of the population the hospital serves. The AHA-supported Establishing Beneficiary Equity in the Hospital Readmission Program Act (H.R. 1343/S. 688) would adjust the HRRP to account for these factors. Other panelists at the forum included AHA members Brenda Battle, vice president for care delivery innovation and chief diversity and inclusion officer, University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences Division; Gary Bennett, Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health and Medicine, Duke University; Maureen Lichtveld, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; and Cheri Wilson, corporate director of diversity and inclusion, RWJ Barnabas Health.