Policy interest in quality improvement grows:  Institute of Medicine (IOM) issues a report on measuring the quality of health care and starts work on what would become the "Quality Chasm" report; HHS establishes Quality Inter-agency Coordination Task Force under the leadership of John Eisenberg of AHRQ.

1998-1999

Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 enacted reauthorizing AHRQ and mandating the annual publication of a National Healthcare Quality Report and a National Healthcare Disparities Report, starting in 2003.

1999

Congress requests IOM to assess disparities in the kinds and quality of healthcare received by U.S. racial and ethnic minorities and non-minorities.

1999

HHS Issues Healthy People 2010 with two explicit goals: increase the quality and years of healthy life, and eliminate health disparities.

2000

IOM releases pre-publication copy of Unequal Treatment, its report on disparities.

2002

Aetna makes a public announcement that it had authorized collection of racial and ethnic data in 2001 and began to collect such data as of October 2002.

Early 2003

GAO responds to a request by Senator Frist for a report on "Health Care: Approaches to Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities."

2003

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences issues a report on "Eliminating Health Disparities: Measurement and Data Needs."

2004

National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) conducts hearings and reviews other information to assess the current limitations of health data on racial and ethnic groups, writing to the HHS Secretary with their comments as a response to the IOM report on racial and ethnic disparities and the National Health Care Disparities Report.

2004

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) submits findings to RWJF from its survey of health plans on the data they have availability on race and ethnicity of their members.

Mid-2004