As HHS officials race to finalize 2011 regulations for meaningful use of health IT, the advisory Health IT Policy Committee has been pondering how to use health IT to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. As proposed in January, the first stage of meaningful use will require providers to collect and report data on patients' race, ethnicities and languages spoken and break down quality reports for each category. Some committee members want to see providers do more with that data in stage two, starting in 2013, but at least one cautions that disparities could increase if the standards are set so high that few safety-net hospitals qualify for Medicare and Medicaid bonus payments for health IT. Article