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Article | December 2020
Health Disparities
Learn about health disparities and find resources to address health disparities among your patients.
What are health disparities?
The National Partnership for Action (NPA) has developed the following definition of health disparities:
A health disparity is a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage.1
Health disparities negatively affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or a clean environment.
Such disparities are not new to health care, but COVID-19 exacerbates existing disparities in many sub-populations.
Health disparities can impact the following:
- Racial or ethnic groups
- Religion
- Socioeconomic status
- Gender
- Age
- Mental health
- Cognitive, sensory, or physical disability
- Sexual orientation or gender identity
- Geographic location
- Characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion
Featured Resources
Cultural Competency
Health Disparities: How Your Practice and Patients May Be Affected
Cigna Healthcare Language Assistance Services
COVID-19 Health Disparities
Learn more about health disparities related to COVID-19.
Articles
Delay or Avoidance of Medical Care Because of COVID-19–Related Concerns [PDF]
Health Disparities Worsened By COVID-19: Provider Resources
Videos
Questions from Cigna Healthcare Doctors: Check In On Your Emotional Health When Social Distancing
Preguntas para Chequear la Salud Emocional de Nuestros Niños
Webinar
Close the Cultural Divide
How to Address Health Disparities
Cigna HealthcareSM strongly supports the American Hospital Association’s #123forEquity Pledge to Act Campaign that urges hospital and health system leaders to develop and implement strategies to:
Take Action
Ready to make an action plan for your practice that addresses health disparities? Visit these resources to get started:
Building an Organizational Response to Health Disparities [PDF]
Cigna Healthcare Language Assistance Services
Health Research and Educational Trust
Health Equity for Diverse Populations
National Healthcare Disparities Report [PDF]
National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA)
Medicare Providers
More Resources on Health Equity
Other Featured Topics
1 National Partnership for Action (NPA), http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/
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The insurer is issuing the translated form on an informational basis and the English version is controlling for the purposes of application and interpretation.