Medicare

The 2018 OASDI Trustees Report, officially called "The 2018 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds," presents the current and projected financial status of the trust funds. Social Security and Medicare together accounted for 42 percent of Federal program expenditures in fiscal year 2017.

This report analyzes disparities in the care received by Medicare Advantage beneficiaries during 2015-2016. The report was compiled using information from the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and the Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. It looks at differences in care by race, ethnicity, and gender and also isolates racial and ethnic differences experienced by women and men.

These resources are intended to be used for education and outreach to raise awareness about the availability of Medicare benefits for low-income beneficiaries, namely the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) and the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS/Extra Help) program. These outreach materials include posters to educate Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities about the low-income subsidies.

To understand both the needs of people who use long-term services and supports (LTSS) through Medicare and Medicaid coverage and ways to apply quality measurement to this population, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), supported by The SCAN Foundation, developed a roadmap for evaluating the quality of integrated care for dual eligibles.

Older adults are affected by the opioid public health emergency because they often use prescription opioids to cope with painful chronic conditions or procedures. This issue briefing provides a summary about the problem, treatments, federal strategies to address the crisis, and funding and programs that are addressing this issue. The briefing also highlights innovative programs to address the opioid public health emergency in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

CMS regularly reports data on health plan enrollment, quality, and compliance that states can use to monitor the performance of the Medicare Advantage Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) they contract with to serve Medicare-Medicaid enrollees. This technical assistance tool shows how states can use these data to create tables, graphs, and figures and interpret their meaning in order to assess D-SNP performance.

The CMS Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office (MMCO) regularly reports data on Medicare-Medicaid enrollee demographics, service utilization, spending, and other characteristics that can give states a more comprehensive view of this population. This tool shows states how to use these data to create tables, graphs, and figures and interpret their meaning for a wider audience of stakeholders.

This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation addresses Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket health care spending. This report highlights the rising medical costs for low-income older adults. It is estimated that by 2030, Medicare beneficiaries will be spending half of their Social Security benefit on out-of-pocket Medicare expenses.

For individuals who receive services from both Medicare and Medicaid, care is often fragmented across a wide array of medical, behavioral health, and long-term care providers. Medicare and Medicaid offer otherwise uncoordinated systems of care with different eligibility criteria, benefits, provider networks, and enrollment processes. This issue brief describes key features of effective integrated care programs and presents top policy considerations driving state investment in these programs.

Previous studies have demonstrated that socially isolated older adults are at greater risk for poor health and death than their well-connected counterparts. The AARP Public Policy Institute has released a new report that examines whether social isolation also affects health care spending among older adults, and finds that a lack of social contacts among older adults is associated with an estimated $6.7 billion in additional Medicare spending annually.