The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is encouraging a nationwide commitment in the transition towards value-based care, with preliminary COVID-19 case and hospitalization data from Medicare beneficiaries reinforcing known socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities and need to improve outcomes.

The data, released earlier this week, were collected through monitoring the ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes. Analysis demonstrated that over 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with COVID-19 from January 1 through May 16, 2020. Among beneficiaries hospitalized with COVID-19, the chronic conditions with the highest prevalence were: hypertension (79%), hyperlipidemia (60%), chronic kidney disease (50%), anemia (50%) and diabetes (50%).

Hospitalization rates were higher for racial/ethnic minorities, patients older than 85 years, and those with underlying chronic illness. Beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, who CMS notes experience higher rates of poverty, also were hospitalized at higher rates.

These data reinforce previous findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that older Americans and those with chronic health conditions are at the highest risk for COVID-19, and that the pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minority groups and lower income adults.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma addressed the data in a blog post: "Our current healthcare payment system needs to address the social determinants of health in order to address disparities and improve outcomes. We must change payment structures to create incentives for doctors to focus on the health of the whole person rather than simply the delivery of care ... Until we move to a system that incentivizes value over volume and starts paying doctors for better health outcomes, we'll never be able to adequately address the social determinants of health."

Read the full blog post here.

Clinical Topics: COVID-19 Hub

Keywords: ACC Advocacy, Coronavirus, Medicaid, Medicare, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., COVID-19, Coronavirus, Coronavirus Infections, Social Determinants of Health, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

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