Racial and ethnic disparities in health care access and quality of care received have been widely documented for several minority groups. Research on access to and utilization of palliative care among racial and ethnic minority patients remains an understudied area. Recent national data reveal that disparities are increasing in access to palliative care for chronic disease management and hospice services for end-of-life care.

Notwithstanding the lack of inclusion of considerably large minority groups, the multiple factors contributing to these disparities in access to palliative care remain poorly understood. After an overview of the aforementioned content—including the need for enhanced and expanded measures, we illustrate several issues by discussing the South Asian community as one such minority group.