OIG Looks at Racial, Ethnic Make-Up of Communities Served By Hospitals Receiving COVID Relief Funds
- July 21, 2023
Communities with greater concentrations of Hispanic/Latino residents were generally associated with less COVID-19 targeted provider relief funding for hospitals than communities with lower concentrations, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a report posted July 17.
In April 2020, HHS began distributing Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments through the Health Resources and Services Administration to support health care providers, including hospitals, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Analyzing all four Targeted PRF allotments combined, OIG found that communities with greater concentrations of Hispanic/Latino residents were associated with less PRF per person than communities with smaller concentrations of Hispanic/Latino residents. Specifically, rural census tracts with greater than 15% Hispanic/Latino residents were allocated about 16% less PRF per person than census tracts with less than 5% Hispanic/Latino populations.
The report also noted a similar funding difference among nonrural census tracts—those with greater than 15% Hispanic/Latino residents were allocated about 6% less PRF per person than nonrural census tracts with less than 5% Hispanic/Latino residents.
Conversely, in nonrural areas, communities with greater concentrations of Non-Hispanic Black residents were associated with more PRF per person than communities with smaller concentrations of Non-Hispanic Black residents, but this pattern did not occur in rural areas, OIG found.
Analyzing the four Targeted PRF allotments individually, OIG found that communities with greater concentrations of Hispanic/Latino residents or Non-Hispanic Black residents were associated with less PRF per person than communities with smaller concentrations of Hispanic/Latino residents or Non-Hispanic Black residents.
The report noted, that while the PRF was not specifically intended to address health disparities, health care funding, in general, is an important tool that can help HHS contribute to goals of reducing health disparities by supporting communities and populations with greater risk of poor health outcomes, both in the context of COVID-19 and more broadly.
“Understanding the relationship between the PRF per person and community characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and income can help to inform HHS on decisions about allotting future emergency funding,” OIG said.
Read the report, Targeted Provider Relief Funds Allocated to Hospitals Had Some Differences with Respect to the Ethnicity and Race of Populations Served (OEI-05-20-00580).