Project 2 - Provider-Patient/Caregiver Racial Concordance and Equity in Health Care Systems: Their Influence on Health and Healthcare Outcomes for Populations with ADRD

The project looks at the differences in healthcare use and health outcomes that result when the provider is of the same race as the patient, as compared with when they are of different races. Prior evidence suggests that minoritized patients' trust in medicine may be enhanced when they are paired with a race-concordant provider. This project is investigating the extent of racial concordance between providers and patients, drivers of concordance, and causal impacts of a concordant match on health care use and health. It harnesses several decades of Medicare data from rural and urban regions to shed light on the role of patient/provider racial concordance in driving health outcomes. We compare the impact of racial concordance in ambulatory care settings, where greater sorting may occur, to emergency department settings, where there is quasi-random assignment of patients to providers.