It sounds like a mystical medical term but really it's simple. When you look at the statistics above, you can see that it is a real issue with serious medical consequences, not only for the patient and their families, but also for our health care system, employers and communities.
The Institute of Medicine, (IOM) an independent body created and funded by Congress, studied the issue. A large body of published research documented in the Institute of Medicine's 2002 report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, reveals that racial and ethnic minorities experience a lower quality of health service and are less likely to receive even routine medical procedures than are White Americans.
This is of critical importance in New Jersey, one of six gateway states for entry into the US and which ranks fifth nationally in the number of foreign born residents.
At the American Conference on Diversity, we have addressed two recommendations from the IOM report with several years work on the issue: increaseing cultural competency for health professionals and creating greater awareness of the issue. With funding from The Horizon Foundation for NJ since 2005, we have provided cultural competency training for health professionals in NJ hospitals, training 25% of hospitals in the state thus far and are planning our third annual conference on the issue. Last year's conference focused on health literacy.
Why does this or should this matter to employers?
With an estimated one-third of our employees people of color from various races and ethnicities, we think it's important for New Jersey employers to think about the health disparities issue.
Even though benefits to employees are provided equally, potentially one-third of a workforce can have different health outcomes greatly impacting attendance and performance.
There is a hidden cost to the issue, as documented by the Institute of Integrated Benefits in The Business Case for Managing Health and Productivity (June 2004). They noted: the full costs of employee absence are more than four times total medical payments; absence-related costs alone amount to 76% of net income when considering lost productivity from absence and wage replacement benefits; and investment in reducing absence that produces a return on investment (ROI) of 2:1 in wage replacement cost savings alone represents an ROI of 16:1 when the full cost of implications of reducing absence are considered.
That is significant to any bottom line.
We prepared an Issue Brief and created a Toolkit to help employers of all sizes begin to understand the issue and the impact. Our website has a list of useful health disparities resources and we are happy to continue to cooperate with the National Business Group on Healthin sharing information.
All of us have a stake in recognizing this important issue.
Let's Talk About Health Disparities