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LeRoi Hicks, M.D., MPH
Chief Medical Officer of Wilmington Hospital and Physician Leader of iREACH
Expertise & Research Interests
- Social Determinants of Health/Health Disparities
- Medicine
- Chronic Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Health Equity
Education
- MPH, Harvard School of Public Health
- MD, Indiana University School of Medicine
LeRoi Hicks, M.D., MPH
Chief Medical Officer of Wilmington Hospital and Physician Leader of iREACH
Dr. LeRoi Hicks is the recipient of numerous clinical and research awards and is nationally known for his research on health care disparities.
His research has been related to three areas:
(1) The effects of patients’ racial and cultural background on the treatment and clinical outcomes of chronic disease;
(2) the development and assessment of interventions aimed at improving quality of medical care and the reduction of disparities in care; and
(3) community-based participatory research to identify and address healthcare disparities.
Multimedia

Experience
Poor Health: A Frayed Safety Net
There also is no national data that shows the cost to health systems when poor patients do not go to see a specialist when they need to. What is known is that inpatient care and emergency room treatment are more expensive than outpatient office visits with specialists, and yet for health care providers the current payment system acts as a disincentive to providing specialty care to the poor. A 2013 National Institutes of Health study found that the average cost of a visit to the emergency department in the United States was $2,168. Many specialists charge at least $350, and office visits that involve procedures can cost more.
Leroi Hicks, now vice chair of the department of medicine at ChristianaCare Health System in Delaware and author of the Harvard study, said the main problem is systemic.
"Even now, with all the changes we're going through with health care, we still operate under a system where specialists are operating under a fee-for-service model and not a plan for the patient's overall health," he said. Because of that, "we shouldn't be surprised that doctors who don't get reimbursed for a service don't provide care to people without insurance."
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"We need much more information about what occurs outside of hospitals, particularly for those most vulnerable populations, which include people from high-stressed communities and communities that are traditionally under-resourced," Hicks said.