Black patients suffering from long COVID-19 are experiencing difficulties getting treatment despite comprising the brunt of cases and hospitalizations, NBC News reported Aug. 28.

CVS Health will invest $10.5 million to build 50 supportive housing units in Cleveland as part of its commitment to addressing health equity. 

A $3 million donation from the Chen Family Foundation will fund further research into health equity at the University of Miami and the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. 

Boston Mountain Rural Health partnered with the city of Harrison, Ark., and its special committee on homelessness to address concerns in the city, according to an Aug. 23 report from KSRP.

The North Carolina Medicaid office launched the first-of-its-kind program in March to encourage people to pursue a healthy lifestyle rather than only paying for care when an individual is sick. However, an Aug. 24 report in North Carolina Health News indicates that growing pains come with the new territory.

The National Committee for Quality Assurance named Bryan O. Buckley, DrPH, as its new director of health equity initiatives Aug. 23.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a new policy to continue providing government-funded healthcare coverage for about 40,000 low-income adults living in the U.S. illegally, according to an Aug. 22 report from ABC News.

The public health sector needs to provide nurses with resources to more comprehensively address and advocate for health equity, Tarissa Host wrote for the MinnPost Aug. 22.

Five health equity partnerships reported since Aug. 9:

UCLA launched TechQuity Accelerator, a health tech program aimed at companies providing resources for underserved communities, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported Aug. 22.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing introduced the Thrive clinical pathway Aug. 18 to improve health equity and support those who experience adverse outcomes resulting from complex chronic illnesses, poverty and inequality.

Gilead Sciences plans to collaborate with two academic institutions to reduce inequities in HIV healthcare for Black Americans. The company is teaming with Atlanta-based Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine and the New Orleans-based Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Trillium Community Health Plan partnered with technology company Unite Us to enhance the health plan's ability to collaborate between providers and community-based organizations to provide healthcare services for Oregon Health Plan members.

When preventive HIV medications are offered through employer-sponsored health insurance, the annual income of gay men in the U.S. declines and part-time employment rates go up, an Aug. 17 study from researchers at Troy, N.Y.-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found.

As health equity takes center stage for new policies – with the CDC and HHS unveiling a tool to track health effects of environmental issues and NCQA updating guidelines to address disparities – health systems nationwide are ramping up their own efforts.

The state of racial health inequities is a national crisis that many communities have recognized must be addressed. The big question is typically, how? It is a long-standing injustice in many marginalized communities throughout the U.S. At a macro-level, healthcare access challenges often combine with unmet social needs to produce inequitable outcomes. 

The University of Vermont in Burlington, MaineHealth Institute for Research in Scarborough, and the University of Southern Maine in Portland were granted $20 million to continue conducting community-based research to further health equity, Vermont Biz reported Aug. 11.

While early CDC data suggests U.S. monkeypox cases are high among Black and Hispanic people, vaccination rates among the groups are lagging, with at least 54 percent of doses going to white people nationwide, Bloomberg reported Aug. 11.

The CDC and HHS on Aug. 10 released the Environmental Justice Index, a tool meant to help public health officials and communities identify areas at high risk of experiencing negative health effects from environmental factors. 

Here are five recent health equity donations over $1 million that Becker's has covered since July 20: