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7 Ind. J.L. & Soc. Equal. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/injlaseq7 and id is 1 raw text is: Addressing Racial Disparities in Health Care One Inequality at a Time: Total Knee Replacement Frank Griffin, M.D., J.D.* INTRODUCTION Distinctions of race, nationality, colour, and creed are unknown within the portals of the temple of Aesculapius. Sir William Osler Independent of income or insurance status, racial disparities in utilization of beneficial medical procedures are well documented, and the largest disparity in the United States is between African Americans and Caucasians.2 Since the enactment of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), racial bias has been prohibited for health care providers receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding,3 but racial disparities persist. According to the Institute of Medicine (1GM), there is no evidence that any significant proportion of health care professionals in the United States harbors overtly prejudicial attitudes,4 So the cause appears to be complex * Dr. Griffin is an Adjunct Professor and Health Law Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Arkansas School of Law and is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. 1 THE QUOTABLE OSLER, Revised Paperback Edition, 71 (American College of Physicians 2008) (explaining that Aesculapius is the Greek god of healing and patron deity of physicians). 2 Ruqaiijah Yearby, Breaking the Cycle of Unequal Treatment with Health Care Reform: Acknowledging and Addressing the Continuation of Racial Bias, 44 CONN. L. REv. 1281, 1287 (2012); Alan R. Nelson, Unequal Treatment: Report of the Institute of Medicine on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, 76 ANN. THORAC. SURG. S1377, S1377 (2003) (noting disparities in cardiac surgeries, kidney procedures, total joint replacement surgeries, and many other medically beneficial procedures); see also Rene Bowser, The Affordable Care Act and Beyond: Opportunities for Advancing Health Equity and Social Justice, 10 HASTINGS RACE & POVERTY L.J. 69, 75-77 (2013) (noting that racial minorities receive a lower quality and intensity of health care than white patients, even when they are insured at the same levels, have similar incomes, and present with the same types of health problems.); see also Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), African American Health: Creating Equal Opportunities for Health, VITAL SIGNS (May 2, 2017), https://www.cde.gov/vitalsigns/aahealth/index.html. 3 Yearby, supra note 2, at 1288. 4 Nelson, supra note 2, at S1377.

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