Elderly Hispanics throughout the country tend to get inferior care, according to a Harvard study released on Tuesday. The study reported that Medicare data from 2004 reveals that hospitals with high percentages of Hispanic patients tend to have slightly lower quality indicators in three crucial areas: heart attacks, congestive heart failure and pneumonia.

The findings however, may not apply to the South Florida area, where 60 percent of the population is Hispanic and Hispanic patients make up the majority of the patients in the region's hospitals.The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published in the March-April edition of Health Affairs, is a follow-up to a similar study last year on African Americans.