https://macropaperwarehouse.com/authors/michael-frakes/Michael FrakesHugo -- gohugo.ioen-ushttps://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/the-effect-of-provider-diversity-on-racial-health-disparities-evidence-from-the-military/https://macropaperwarehouse.com/papers/the-effect-of-provider-diversity-on-racial-health-disparities-evidence-from-the-military/<p>This paper asks whether racial concordance between patients and medical providers — specifically, whether Black patients are treated by Black physicians — improves use of preventive care and reduces mortality among patients with chronic, manageable diseases. The authors argue that trust and communication deficits along racial lines cause Black patients to underuse low-cost, life-saving preventive care, and that increasing the share of Black providers addresses this deficit.</p> <p>The authors use data from the Military Health System (MHS) Data Repository covering fiscal years 2003–2013, encompassing roughly 9.6 million beneficiaries. A distinctive feature of the MHS is that active-duty providers are themselves MHS beneficiaries, so their race is observed in the same eligibility files used for patients — overcoming the typical absence of provider-race data in claims databases. The study focuses on four chronic, deadly but manageable conditions: diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Preventive care is measured by medication fill-days for condition-appropriate generic drugs, HEDIS-recommended Comprehensive Diabetes Care compliance, and (for a subset) blood pressure control. Mortality is tracked across the full sample period.</p>