Improving Health Equity for Older Adults and Complex Patient Populations

This project aims to identify and evaluate disparities in health care delivery experiences among racial and ethnic groups within the Medicare population and within the high-need, high-cost (HNHC) populations. The project will investigate the association between Medicare coverage and patient-reported health care experiences, and how they differ across racial/ethnic groups and within the high-cost, high-need population. The project also will assess recent national trends in patient out-of-pocket costs to illuminate the relationship between Medicare coverage and racial/ethnic disparities in health care-related financial risk. The analyses will use data from the Medicare Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) from 2009 to 2018.