OBJECTIVE In 2004, Wisconsin Medicaid policy changed to allow medical care providers to be reimbursed for fluoride varnish treatment (FVT) to children's teeth to improve access and utilization. To date, no study has been published on whether geographic and racial/ethnic variation in the provision of FVT in response to this policy change exists. This study's objective is to examine the associati...

OBJECTIVE Between 1989 and 1995, expansions in Medicaid eligibility provided publicly financed health insurance to an additional 7 million poor and near-poor children. It is not known whether these expansions affected children's insurance coverage, use of health care services, or health status differently, depending on their race/ethnicity. The objective of this study was to examine, by race/et...

BACKGROUND We used a composite variable composed of insurance status, income, and race/ethnicity to investigate access-enhancing programs as a possible reason for "reversals of association" and large percent changes (LPC), between race/ethnicity and cancer screening, when comparing the unadjusted and adjusted ORs. METHODS Data were from women aged 40-64 years, using the combined 2008 and 2010...

BACKGROUND The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies for race-county combinations in the United States is over 35 y. We divided the race-county combinations of the US population into eight distinct groups, referred to as the "eight Americas," to explore the causes of the disparities that can inform specific public health intervention policies and programs. METHODS AND FINDINGS ...

OBJECTIVE To examine racial/ethnic differences in healthcare coverage, utilization, and satisfaction, among US adults with diabetes. DESIGN AND SETTING We conducted a cross-sectional analysis among 9443 adults with diabetes who participated in the 1999 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a telephone survey of the civilian non-institutionalized US population aged > or = 18 yrs....

BACKGROUND Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has been the standard in atherosclerotic stroke prevention for over 2 decades. More recently, carotid artery stenting (CAS) has emerged as a less invasive alternative for revascularization. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an increase in stenting parallels a decrease in endarterectomy, if there are specific patient factors that influen...

OBJECTIVE The health care encounter is a setting in which racial/ethnic disparities can arise. Patients who experience disrespect in this encounter may be less likely to use health care services that improve outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine factors in the health care encounter and to model how negative perceptions of the encounter influence health care utilization. DESIGN,...

BACKGROUND There are racial disparities in the use of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment services in South Africa but little is known about the factors contributing to these disparities. This study aimed to redress this gap through identifying differences in barriers to AOD treatment use among Black African and Coloured persons from Cape Town, South Africa. The Behavioral Model of Health Se...

pharmaceuticals are often considered as the most significant cost driver of health care expenditures and at the same time have a major impact on patients’ curative processes and outcomes. other pieces of evidence emphasize that drugs are the input for the production of good health. they are considered as the most important and expensive element in the healthy supply chain and are more associate...

This study provides an overview of Medicare's current coverage and payment policies regarding hospitalization for psychiatric disorders, and presents new information on demographic, diagnostic, utilization, and expenditure characteristics associated with inpatient psychiatric care among 1995 Medicare beneficiaries. Results suggest that utilization and expenditure patterns for Medicare beneficia...