A Chicago Reporter article (Jeff Kelly Lowenstein) revealed findings that white nursing home residents in Chicago are likely to receive significantly better care than Black residents, even between homes where the majority of residents are Medicaid recipients.

The Reporter analyzed the records of 15,724 nursing homes listed in the federal Nursing Home Compare ranking database to determine if disparities existed in the quality of care.  The database includes homes that get some of their money from Medicaid or Medicare, more than 95 percent of all nursing homes.

The Reporter found that in Chicago, 57 percent of Black nursing homes received the worst possible rating—a one on a five-point scale, compared with 11 percent of white nursing homes.

The Harvard Medical School Department of Health Care Policy is also conducting ongoing research on the subject of racial disparity in levels of nursing home care, but with an emphasis on disparities within facilities as opposed to disparities between facilities.  According to a summary of the Harvard project, a number of studies have documented across-facility disparities in nursing home care, but very little work has been conducted on within-facility disparities.