Medicare

Behavioral health (BH) conditions are rising among older adults, who are less likely to receive mental health (MH) or substance use disorder (SUD) treatment compared to younger adults. This study examined the availability of care for older adults in outpatient BH facilities across the United States both quantitatively and qualitatively.

This report examines how integrated care models served full-benefit dually eligible Medicare‑Medicaid beneficiaries in 2021. It compares three types of integrated plans—PACE, FIDE‑SNPs, and D‑SNPs—to standard Medicare Advantage plans, with a focus on hospitalizations, emergency department visits, nursing facility use, home‑ and community‑based services, and mortality.

This study examined how people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) use hospice compared with patients who have other terminal diagnoses, as well as how hospice characteristics shape those care patterns.

This Issue Brief explores opportunities that technology-enabled care (TEC) offers to help meet patient and provider needs for high-valued coordinated care to improve health outcomes. It explores literature surrounding existing available TEC options, as well as economic and payment issues that influence whether this is taken up.

This study examines the use of medical services and long-term services and supports by the population over age 65 over time.

Older adults with behavioral health disorders often experience worse health and functional outcomes, have higher rates of emergency department visits, use more medications, and have higher health care costs than those without a behavioral health disorder. There is need for a greater understanding of the extent to which older adults experience behavioral health disorders.

We evaluated both the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMS Innovation Center) models and the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and found that they have generated gross savings for all beneficiaries in the Traditional Medicare program while demonstrating positive impacts on selected quality measures.

To improve Medicare provider and supplier enrollment data transparency, in 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publicly released detailed ownership data, including data on change of ownership transactions, for Medicare-enrolled hospices. This brief presents a descriptive analysis of hospice agency changes of ownership nationally between 2018 and 2022.

Between 1988 and 1998, Congress established the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs). MSPs are Medicaid programs that subsidize the cost of Medicare premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, and other cost sharing for Medicare beneficiaries with low incomes.

Over one million Americans rely on nursing homes for care, yet nursing homes face challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. Nursing homes rely on registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and nursing assistants (NAs) to provide care, but staff shortages that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic have persisted.