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Report
Medicare for 50-to-64-Year-Olds
Allowing Americans aged 50 to 64 to buy into Medicare would lower health care premiums for the group. But it would also drive up costs for younger people who buy health insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Nov 18, 2019
News Release
Medicare Surgical Payments Should Be Updated to Reflect Postoperative Care That Is Actually Provided
Medicare appears to be overpaying surgeons for many medical procedures. Federal officials should incorporate ways to more objectively measure the amount of postoperative care surgeons provide to patients.
Jan 22, 2020

Explore Medicare

Journal Article
Rural Disparities in the Quality of Clinical Care Are Notable and Larger for Males
This study extends evidence of pronounced rural-urban differences in clinical care. It shows that quality gaps in clinical care for rural MA enrollees are often larger for males than females.
Jun 22, 2023
Journal Article
Trends in Methadone Dispensing for Opioid Use Disorder After Medicare Payment Policy Changes
A new Medicare policy may have improved access to methadone and buprenorphine treatment for Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosed opioid use disorder (OUD) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but further research is needed to determine its impact.
Jun 2, 2023
News Release
Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder Rises After Medicare Expands Coverage for Methadone
The use of methadone among Medicare beneficiaries to treat opioid use disorder increased sharply after the program began covering the drug, with evidence suggesting the change created new treatment rather than displacing use of other medications.
May 19, 2023
Journal Article
Estimated Annual Spending on Lecanemab and Its Ancillary Costs in the US Medicare Program
To estimate annual Medicare spending on lecanemab, we performed a cost analysis using nationally representative survey data from the 2018 Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
May 17, 2023
Journal Article
Development of a Medicare Plan Dashboard to Promote Health Equity
The HESS dashboard is a potentially useful tool for presenting data on health equity to health plans.
Apr 14, 2023
Journal Article
Are the Experiences of Those New to Medicare Good from the Start?
The results of this study provide some assurance that Medicare's onboarding process is effective, and that the care experiences of new enrollees with health care services are broadly similar to those with longer experience in the Medicare program.
Mar 29, 2023
Journal Article
Annual Health Care Costs Among Medicare Beneficiaries with Essential Tremor
We estimate the average direct medical expenditures for essential tremor using Medicare claims data. Beneficiaries have $1068 more annual expenditures relative to comparisons. This aggregates to $1.5–$5.4 billion in additional annual costs.
Jan 25, 2023
Journal Article
Income-related Disparities in Medicare Advantage Behavioral Health Care Quality
Low income is associated with lower performance on behavioral health measures, but associations differ across racial groups. Improving care integration and addressing barriers to care may improve equity across income levels.
Jan 24, 2023
Journal Article
Buprenorphine Treatment Episode Duration, Dosage, and Concurrent Prescribing of Benzodiazepines and Opioid Analgesics: The Effects of Medicaid Prior Authorization Policies
Researchers used Medicaid claims during the period 2006–2013 to investigate the relationship between buprenorphine prior authorization requirements and changes in treatment in the years following policy implementation.
Dec 8, 2022
Journal Article
Infection Trends in Home Health Care, 2013-2018
In this study, we used 2013-2018 OASIS assessment data linked to Medicare inpatient data to estimate trends in the prevalence of infection in hospital transfers among home health care patients and subsequent 30-day mortality.
Nov 15, 2022
Journal Article
Patient Experience for Hispanic Older Adults Varies by Language Preference
Regardless of language preference, Hispanic people with Medicare experience disparities in patient care relative to non-Hispanic White English-preferring counterparts.
Nov 15, 2022
Journal Article
Part D Senior Savings Model: Model Reach and Scope
This report describes the reach and scope of Medicare's Part D Senior Savings model, which has lower, fixed cost sharing for a specified set of model drugs.
Nov 9, 2022
Journal Article
Poor Self-rated Mental Health and Medicare Beneficiaries' Routine Care-Seeking
This cross-sectional study assessed the relationship between self-rated mental health (SRMH) and infrequent routine care among Medicare beneficiaries and investigated the roles of managed care and having a personal doctor.
Nov 8, 2022
Commentary
Medicare Drug Price Negotiation: Key Decisions to Reach a 'Fair Price'
Government negotiation of Medicare drug prices—even for a small set of older, single-source drugs—is a remarkable policy development. But how exactly will the government do it?
Nov 7, 2022
Journal Article
Association Between Hospital-Physician Vertical Integration and Medication Adherence Rates
Increases in vertical integration were not associated with changes in medication adherence rates. However, adherence rates after vertical integration declined for non-Whites, patients over 80 years old, and patients with greater comorbidities.
Oct 28, 2022
Journal Article
Association of Medicare Advantage Premiums With Measures of Quality and Patient Experience
This population-based cross-sectional study found that although quality of care and patient experience were slightly higher with higher-premium plans, quality varied widely within each premium category.
Oct 27, 2022
Journal Article
Evaluation of the Million Hearts® Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model: Fourth Annual Report
In this model, CMS pays participating organizations for assessing each of their eligible Medicare beneficiary's risk of having a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years and for reducing CVD risk among high-risk beneficiaries.
Oct 25, 2022
Journal Article
Evaluation of the Million Hearts® Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model: Third Annual Report
In its first three years, the Million Hearts® Model improved cardiovascular preventive care, but did not yet reduce observed heart attacks and strokes or lower Medicare spending.
Oct 25, 2022
Journal Article
Evaluation of Phase II of the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design Model Test: First Two Years of Implementation (2020–2021), and Appendixes
This report presents the RAND Corporation team's findings from its evaluation of Phase II of the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design model test, for the years 2020 and 2021.
Oct 19, 2022
Journal Article
Systematic Review of Rural and Urban Differences in Care Provided by Home Health Agencies in the United States
We conducted a systematic search for English-language peer-reviewed articles after 2010 on differences in urban and rural care provided by U.S. HHAs. We screened 876 studies and conducted full-text abstraction and NOS quality review on 36 articles.
Oct 6, 2022

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Researcher Spotlight

Yaou Flora Sheng

Statistical Analyst

Flora (Yaou) Sheng is a statistical analyst at the RAND Corporation. She conducts research on health and public policy and, working with multidisciplinary teams, she develops methods combining theories and empirical strategies developed in epidemiology, economics, and statistics so as to provide…
Justin W. Timbie

Senior Health Policy Researcher

Justin Timbie is a senior health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. His research focuses on value-based payment, health care organizational models and their effects on providers and patients, and health policy issues involving the safety net. He has over ten years of experience…

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