Hospitals in communities with greater numbers of Latino residents were generally allocated lower amounts of COVID-19-related relief funds, HHS said in a July 12 report.
The report was compiled from Medicare data about census tracts served by each hospital, assigning each hospital's funding quota proportionally. Rural and nonrural census tracts were analyzed separately and, in all, the report dealt with $44 billion in funding from 2020.
The finding is important because more Latinos are hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than white Americans, according to the report. The report also found that some hospitals in communities with larger Black populations were found to have higher levels of funding and that such funding levels were not associated with poverty rates.
"Differences in hospital funding with respect to the characteristics of the populations hospitals serve—including race and ethnicity—could potentially exacerbate pre-existing disparities in health outcomes," HHS said in the report.