NC Medicaid serves almost 3 million low-income individuals and families, placing it in a unique position to track health disparities and improve the health of populations that have been historically marginalized.
To help identify and address these disparities, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Division of Health Benefits (DHB) developed the 2022 Annual Health Equity Report, which outlines health disparities across the entire NC Medicaid beneficiary population.
The report looks at 50 quality measures and identifies health disparities across eight demographic stratifications (e.g., ethnicity, gender, and disability status). The results are organized into six domains:
- member experience,
- child and adolescent health,
- women’s health,
- mental health,
- substance use, and
- health care utilization.
For 2022, the domain with the largest count of identified disparities was the substance use domain, and the demographic stratifications with the highest count of identified disparities were beneficiaries who identify as having a disability and those with long-term services and support needs.
In addition to identifying health disparities, the 2022 Annual Health Equity Report highlights programs across NC Medicaid that are working towards eliminating health inequities. This report will serve as a tool, alongside other department and division-wide efforts, to identify areas of need and track health disparities over time.
The full report and a six-page brief are available here: