News Briefs: New CMS Report Finds Non-White Medicare Advantage Enrollees Continue to Receive Worse Care

A new report looking at disparities in care for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries by race, ethnicity and sex found that non-white MA enrollees generally received worse care in 2020 than their white counterparts. Racial and ethnic differences were more glaring for clinical care measures than for patient experience measures, with scores for Black MA enrollees falling below the national average for 14 out of 36 clinical care measures, according to the April report, which was prepared by The RAND Corp. for the CMS Office of Minority Health. Researchers relied on Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) data collected from March to May 2021 and the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set reflecting care received from January to December 2020. White enrollees reported care that was in line with the national average on all patient experience measures from the CAHPS survey, while their scores were similar to the national average on 31 clinical care measures and above average on five measures. Scores for American Indian and Alaska Native MA enrollees were also below the national average on 14 clinical care measures, and scores for Hispanic MA beneficiaries were worse than average on 11 such measures.

© 2024 MMIT
Lauren Flynn Kelly

Lauren Flynn Kelly Managing Editor, Radar on Medicare Advantage

Lauren has been covering health business issues, including drug benefits and specialty pharmacy, for more than a decade. She served as editor of Drug Benefit News (the predecessor to Radar on Drug Benefits) from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2016, and now manages Radar on Medicare Advantage. Lauren graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.

Related Posts

pills
March 21

Part D Formularies Get More Restrictive, but MA-PDs Beat PDPs on Access

READ MORE
department-of-justice
March 21

False Claims Act Suits Offer Lessons Learned for MA Plans, Lawyer Says

READ MORE
unhappy-surprised-couple
March 21

New Survey Digs Into Highs and Lows of MA vs. Traditional Coverage

READ MORE

GAIN THERAPEUTIC AREA-SPECIFIC INTEL TO DRIVE ACCESS FOR YOUR BRAND

Sign up for publications to get unmatched business intelligence delivered to your inbox.

subscribe today