Digital Portals May Widen Health Disparities

Despite GOP insistence that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a disaster for the American people, the reality is quite different. Far from perfect, the ACA has delivered health coverage to 20 million more Americans, many of them low-income people of color. Further, efforts were made to reduce health disparities. A critical tool intended to reduce disparities has been the widespread implementation of digital patient portals and electronic medical records (EMRs). But new data suggests that the digitization of medical access may in fact increase health disparities rather than reduce them.