Dr. William Schpero

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. hospitals had overcapacity intensive care units (ICU) while other area hospitals had open ICU beds available, a phenomenon known as “load imbalance.” The hospitals most likely to be overloaded in imbalanced regions served a higher number of Black patients and more patients enrolled in Medicaid, according to a new study conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

The Medicaid program allocates nearly $20 billion a year in subsidies to support safety-net hospitals and other health care providers that serve low-income patients. 

A new federal mandate that requires Medicaid to cover clinical trial costs is an important step to increase racial and ethnic minority participation in research and improve access for low-income patients to advanced treatments.