States have increasingly introduced health equity-focused regulations in recent years as they seek to improve access, coverage, quality of care, and outcomes. They have leveraged four mechanisms to close the health equity gap:
- Legislation
- State requests for proposals (RFPs) and managed care organization (MCO) Medicaid contracts
- 1115 demonstration waiver programs
- Other state guidance and requirements that focus on quality, strategy, and health equity planning
In this issue brief, we highlight recent activities among the states and discuss next steps for providers and health plans to advance health equity.
This issue brief draws on the 2024 update of our health equity state tracker, a tool to assess the depth and breadth of policies related to health equity across states. The latest refresh covers more than 4 years of data (from January 2020 to September 2024) from state departments of health and state legislatures.
