At the behest of Secretary Tommy Thompson, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote a report on health care disparities affecting minorities.

The executive summary of the final report, released in December, painted a more positive view of the health care minorities receive. Officials eliminated detailed descriptions of the problems minorities face. They also dropped a reference to the disparities as "national problems."

HHS officials acknowledged their revisions. But they said no data was changed.

More information on the National Healthcare Disparities Report can be found at http://www.qualitytools.ahrq.gov.

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Racial Disparities Played Down (The Washington Post 1/14)

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