CMS recently released a fascinating new interactive Mapping Medicare Disparities (MMD) Tool to increase understanding of geographic disparities in chronic disease among Medicare beneficiaries. This is a follow up from the CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare released earlier this year to help to understand disparities in health outcomes, utilization, and spending by race and ethnicity and geographic location.

According to CMS:

“Racial and ethnic minorities experience disproportionately high rates of chronic diseases, and are more likely to experience difficulty accessing high quality of care than other individuals. The identification of areas with large differences in the proportions of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases is an important step for informing and planning health equity activities and initiatives.”

Being able to identify your at risk populations can help you segment and prioritize your planning. As you are addressing these disparities, patient education is paramount and language barriers can be an issue. One of the key factors influencing many of these at risk populations is Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Here’s another map that shows LEP populations by state.

Click here to experience the interactive map. 

Culturally competent communication in a language your patients understand is one of the first steps toward targeted care by population and condition. Luckily, there are some simple translation tools to make this process efficient and effective.