The Scoop

Robert Benincasa and Jennifer Brooks of Gannett News Service used federal data to find that “heart patients in wealthier communities have a better chance of getting recommended treatments at their local hospitals than patients in lower-income areas.” Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, GNS found that “in low-income counties, top-performing hospitals are scarce. In counties ranking in the lowest 20% for median household income, only 5% of the hospitals were in the highest of five performance rankings for heart attack patients. Nearly half of them fell into the lowest category.” Check out the methodology, and a searchable database of ratings GNS assigned to hospitals.