Reducing disparities in medication use: Responding to managed care pharmacy’s imperatives

Although disparities and inequities in health status and access to health care services have long existed in our nation, the COVID-19 pandemic cast a bright spotlight on them. Communities of color and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations were disproportionally affected by the pandemic. These same populations suffer from higher prevalences of chronic illnesses, which puts them at greater risk for poor outcomes associated with SARS-CoV-2. At long last, in the wake of the pandemic, the health care community began to acknowledge improving health equity as a public health imperative. In a November 2020