Black Covid-19 Medicare Patients More Likely to Be Hospitalized

Black Medicare beneficiaries were hospitalized with Covid-19 at nearly four times the rate of Whites, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported Monday.

The new data shows that more than 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries were infected with Covid-19 between Jan. 1 and May 16, while nearly 110,000 were hospitalized.

The data confirms what other researchers have previously reported: that Covid-19 has disproportionately affected people of color.

Among racial/ethnic groups, Black Medicare beneficiaries had the highest hospitalization rate, at 465 per 100,000, the CMS data shows. They were followed by Hispanics, with 258 hospitalizations per 100,000. Asian beneficiaries were hospitalized at a rate of 187 per 100,000, while Whites had a hospitalization rate of 123 per 100,000.

Medicare beneficiaries in rural communities were hospitalized at a lower rate than their urban/suburban counterparts: 57 vs. 205 hospitalizations per 100,000.

“The disparities in the data reflect longstanding challenges facing minority communities and low income older adults, many of whom face structural challenges to their health that go far beyond what is traditionally considered ‘medical,’” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement.

She said the data validates the need to move traditional Medicare from a fee-for-service pay model to a value-based model that reimburses caregivers based on patient outcomes and cost efficiency rather than volume of services.

“The transition to a value-based system has never been so urgent,” Verma said. “When implemented effectively, it encourages clinicians to care for the whole person and address the social risk factors that are so critical for our beneficiaries’ quality of life.”

More than 62.3 million people are enrolled in Medicare.

Data from most states, compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, show Blacks account for a disproportionate share of Covid-19 deaths and infections, while the share of confirmed cases among Hispanics is also larger than their share of the population.

Some states have reported even sharper impacts among American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, Kaiser data show.

A recent study by researchers at Yale and the University of Pittsburgh found that Black people are more than 3.5 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than whites, and Latinos were nearly twice as likely.