Why the study?
Does Medicare Part D reduce racial/ethnic disparities in hospital utilization among Medicare seniors?
Does Medicare Part D reduce racial/ethnic disparities in hospital utilization among Medicare seniors?
The implementation of Medicare Part D was associated with a significant narrowing of racial and ethnic disparities in hospital utilization and inpatient expenses among African American and Hispanic seniors.
Supports disparity-focused policy evaluations; leaves open causal effects beyond this Medicare cohort.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate whether Medicare Part D reduced racial/ethnic disparities in hospital utilization among Medicare seniors, based on the Institute of Medicine's definition of a disparity. METHOD: Using data on 43,098 adult respondents to the 2002-2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we derive a difference-in-difference-in-differences estimator using a multivariate regression framework, and measure Part D's effects on disparities in any hospitalization, the number of nights hospitalized, and inpatient expenses. RESULTS: Part D narrowed racial/ethnic disparities in hospital utilization. For African Americans, it reduced the disparity in any hospitalization by 2.94% (p < .001) but had no effect on disparities in nights hospitalized or inpatient expenses. For Hispanics, Part D reduced disparities in nights hospitalized by 1.58 nights (p = .009) and in inpatient expenses by US$3,453 (p < .001). DISCUSSION: Following Medicare Part D, disparities in hospital utilization narrowed significantly for both African American and Hispanic seniors, but in different ways for each population.
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Mahmoudi et al. (2015) studied this question.
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