National Minority Health Month 

During April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) recognizes National Minority Health Month. Officially established by Congress in 2002, this health observance offers an opportunity to build awareness about the health inequities that have historically affected underserved and marginalized communities.

In keeping with Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, our office is working to develop a comprehensive approach to advance equity for all including people of color and those adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequity to ensure those served by CMS can achieve their highest level of health and well-being. This is an effort that has involved furthering and embedding equity work across all CMS programs and continuing to provide resources to encourage advancing health equity for all the populations we serve. From the CMS Innovation Center to the Medicare program, Medicaid and CHIP programs across the country, the Marketplace team, and more, CMS is committed to advancing health equity across Medicare, the Marketplaces, and Medicaid and CHIP.

This observance exemplifies our goal to help eliminate health disparities while improving the health of all minority populations. Below is a list of the resources offered by CMS OMH in order to help achieve this goal.

Resources

• Review the Health Equity Challenges and CMS Resources to Help Address Them infographic, which outlines various barriers to health equity and related challenges that populations often face and shares CMS resources that can help close the health equity gap. 
• Review the Health Equity Technical Assistance Program which offers resources aimed at helping health care organizations take action against health disparities.
• Use the Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool to identify areas of disparity between subgroups of people with Medicare (e.g., racial and ethnic groups) in health outcomes, utilization, and spending. 
• Download Improving Health in Rural Communities: 2021 Year in Review to learn about the activities and accomplishments that CMS has made in improving the health and wellbeing of individuals living and working in rural, frontier, and tribal communities in fiscal year 2021.
• Download Paving the Way to Equity: A Progress Report to learn more about the progress CMS has made in advancing health equity between 2015 and 2021.
• View our Coverage to Care initiative, which was developed to help people understand their health coverage and connect to the primary care and preventive services that are best for them.

CMS Office of Minority Health  |  Working to Achieve Health Equity

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