On October 31st, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released final standards to measure health care disparities based on race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and disability status, as required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Making these data standards consistent will help identify significant health disparities that often exist between and within ethnic groups. For example, a study showed that the diabetes-related mortality rate for Mexican Americans (251 deaths per 100,000) and Puerto Ricans (204 deaths per 100,000) was twice as high as the diabetes-related mortality rate for Cuban Americans (101 deaths per 100,000). However, these data would have remained unexamined had only the umbrella terms of "Hispanic" or "Latino" been used. By adding different ethnic origins as explicit categories on all HHS-sponsored health surveys, the government hopes to better capture and track the health differences and thus target interventions more appropriately.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that providers working in underserved areas may be eligible for a refund on their 2009 taxes because the health reform law expanded the tax exclusion "to include any state loan repayment or loan forgiveness programs intended to increase the availability of health care services in underserved areas or health professional shortage areas."