The trend of racial and ethnic differences in self-reported health
status, access, and affordability among US adults has changed over
the past two decades, or has it? A study by Mahajan et al (2021) says
"Between 1999 and 2018, some estimated racial and ethnic
differences in measures of self-reported health status and health care
access improved, but many differences persisted". This trend has
three implications for financial planning within healthcare
organizations like hospitals.
The first implication is the increased cost to hospitals due to the
amount of care required. In the study mentioned above the reported
rate of poor or fair health status was 14.3% among Black individuals
in 1999. The reported poor health status among Black individuals was
still 14.2% showing no significant change (Mahajan et al., 2021). So
patients with poorer health and lower income will require more care
and the care will have to be covered by the hospital/ insurance.
The second implication is the amount of hospital beds and staff
available. With more patients that are requiring care this means that
there will need to be more hospital beds and hospital staff to take
care of the patients. This is another cost to the hospital that would
need to be considered in the financial planning.
The third implication that this trend has is that hospitals will need to
plan to be more accessible to this population. The lack of health
insurance was 14.4% in 1999 and in 2018 is decreased significantly.
(Mahajan et al., 2021). With access to health insurance individuals will
be more likely to seek care but may not have a usual source of care.
Still healthcare costs are too high and effect low income Black
individuals. "Black and White individuals with low income had the
highest estimated rates of foregone or delayed care due to cost
21.0%" (Mahajan et al., 2021). Hospitals will need to be more
accessible to this population to provide a usual source of care that is
affordable.
