Reducing racial disparities in coronary angiography

Abstract

Racial disparities in cardiac services are well documented; however, policies to close these gaps have not been studied. This paper evaluates a New Jersey certificate-of-need reform to reduce disparities in diagnostic coronary angiography. The number of angiography facilities in New Jersey doubled following reform, and a large black-white disparity was eliminated-a trend not observed in nearby states. Surprisingly, increases in service to African American patients following reform were concentrated in hospitals licensed before reform, while the newly licensed facilities contributed relatively little to reducing disparities. We hypothesize that added hospital competition contributed to the reduction in disparities.