Target Audience

Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) is an interdisciplinary, multi-specialty Journal, and articles span the spectrum of medical topics, providing timely, up-to-date information for primary care physicians and specialists alike. The SMJ enables physicians to provide the best possible care to patients in this age of rapidly changing modern medicine.  Therefore, the readers of the SMJ are an appropriate target for this article.

Goals and Objectives

Low-income individuals in the United States are more likely to delay or forgo needed health care because of a lack of insurance and high healthcare costs. Delayed utilization of necessary health services is associated with negative health outcomes, and people with the greatest health needs are more likely to forgo health care. This study makes important contributions to the understanding of access to care during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that goes beyond economic barriers. In particular, this study emphasizes healthcare access of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus (LGBTQ+) and non-LGBTQ+ individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing potential risk factors for delayed care, including pandemic-related stress, health status, and LGBTQ+ discrimination, and protective factors, such as social support.

At the conclusion of the activity, learners should be better prepared to:

• Discuss the impact of COVID-19 and other recent stressors on the healthcare and healthcare priorities of low-income persons who are members of the LGBTQ  community;
• Describe the different outcomes experienced by homosexual and cis-gender women versus homosexual and cis-gender men;
• Develop and implement healthcare priorities and delivery processes to improve the health of the LGBTQ population.

Course Information

CME Release Date: October 5, 2022
Valid for credit through:  October 4, 2025
Course type: Journal CME/CE
Estimated time of completion: 1 hour

Credits Available

Southern Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Southern Medical Association designates this Journal CME/CE activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

AAPA: AAPA accepts certificates of participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by ACCME or a recognized state medical society. 

AANPCP: The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from organizations accredited by the ACCME.

Healthcare Professionals: For information on applicability and acceptance of continuing education credit for this activity, please consult your professional licensing board.  All healthcare professionals who are not MDs or DOs will receive a certificate of participation.

Instructions for Participation and Credit

This activity is designed to be completed within the time designated; learners should claim only those credits that reflect the time actually spent in the activity. To successfully earn credit, participants must complete the activity online during the valid credit period noted, following these steps:

• Read the goals and objectives, accreditation information, and author disclosures.
• Login in below to study the educational content and references.
• Complete the attestation, post-test (if applicable), and evaluation.

Upon successful completion of these components, your certificate will be processed and emailed from customerservice@sma.org within approximately 1 hour. Credits will be archived for 6 years; at any point within this time period you may login to your account to print a duplicate copy of your certificate.

Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships

Southern Medical Association (SMA) requires instructors, planners, managers, and all other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose conflicts of interest (COI) with ineligible entities within the last 24 months of the development of this activity. All identified COIs are thoroughly vetted and mitigated prior to the release of the activity. SMA is committed to providing its learners with high quality activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.

The following individuals, unless otherwise noted, have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Manuscript Author(s):
Jennifer Tabler, PhD
Rachel M. Schmitz, PhD
Ruby Charak, PhD
Aidan Propst, BS

Southern Medical Association/Southern Medical Journal Editorial Staff:
Steven T. Baldwin, MD, SMJ Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer S. Price, MA, Managing Editor
Anita McCabe, Copyeditor