Medicare Advantage Associated With More Racial Disparity Than Traditional Medicare For Hospital Readmissions

We compared racial disparities in thirty-day readmissions between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who underwent one of six major surgeries in New York State in 2013. We found that Medicare Advantage was associated with greater racial disparity, compared to traditional Medic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health Affairs 2017-07, Vol.36 (7), p.1328-1335
Main Authors: Li, Yue, Cen, Xi, Cai, Xueya, Thirukumaran, Caroline P., Zhou, Jie, Glance, Laurent G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advantages
Aortic aneurysms
Archives & records
Beneficiaries
Black people
Government programs
Health care access
Health care policy
Health maintenance organizations
HMOs
Hospitals
Inequality
Joint surgery
Medicaid
Medicare
Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement & Modernization Act 2003-US
Patients
Propensity
Race
Racial differences
Racial inequality
Readmission
Risk
Risk reduction
Surgery
Surgical outcomes
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Summary:We compared racial disparities in thirty-day readmissions between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries who underwent one of six major surgeries in New York State in 2013. We found that Medicare Advantage was associated with greater racial disparity, compared to traditional Medicare. After controlling for patient, hospital, and geographic characteristics in a propensity score based approach, we found that in traditional Medicare, black patients were 33 percent more likely than white patients to be readmitted, whereas in Medicare Advantage, black patients were 64 percent more likely than white patients to be readmitted. Our findings suggest that the risk-reduction strategies adopted by Medicare Advantage plans have not been successful in lowering the markedly higher rate of readmission among black patients, compared to white patients.
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1344