CMS NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2016
Contact: CMS Media Relations
(202) 690-6145 | CMS
Media Inquiries
CMS
Releases Interactive Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool
Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) released a new interactive map to increase
understanding of geographic disparities in chronic disease among Medicare
beneficiaries. The Mapping
Medicare Disparities (MMD) Tool identifies
disparities in health outcomes, utilization, and spending by race and
ethnicity and geographic location. Understanding
geographic differences in disparities is important to informing policy
decisions and efficiently targeting populations and geographies for
interventions.
“Our
commitment to health equity begins with properly measuring the care people get
and having an honest dialogue on how and where we need to improve,” said CMS
Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt. “Today’s tool aims to make it harder for
disparities to go unaddressed.”
Racial
and ethnic minorities experience disproportionately high rates of chronic
diseases, and are more likely to experience difficulty accessing high quality
of care than other individuals. The identification of areas with large
differences in the proportions of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases
is an important step for informing and planning health equity activities and
initiatives. The Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool
features:
- A dynamic interface with data on the prevalence of 18
chronic conditions, end stage renal disease, or a disability; Medicare
spending, hospital and emergency department (ED) utilization, preventable
hospitalizations, readmissions, and mortality rates.
- The
ability to sort by state or county of residence, sex, age,
dual-eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and race and ethnicity.
- Built-in
benchmarking features to investigate disparities within counties and
across racial and ethnic groups, and within racial and ethnic groups
across counties.
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Area 1 of
“It’s
not enough to improve average health care quality in the U.S.,” said CMS OMH
Director Cara James. “As the CMS Equity Plan lays out, we must identify gaps in
quality of care at all levels of the health care system to address disparities.
We are excited to share this new tool, which allows us to pinpoint disparities
in health care outcomes by population and condition.”
The MMD Tool was developed in collaboration with KPMG LLC
and NORC at the University of Chicago as part of the CMS
Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare. The
plan provides a framework for advancing health equity by improving the
quality of care provided to minority and other underserved Medicare
beneficiaries. MMD Tool
To access the MMD tool, visit https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/OMH-Mapping-Medicare-Disparities.html
To learn more about how to use the tool and its data
sources, see the MMD
Tool Overview. Further details are available in
the MMD
Tool Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), the Quick
Start Guide, and the MMD
Tool Technical Documentation.
Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) was
established as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)
and works to eliminate health disparities and improve the health of all
minority populations, including racial and ethnic minorities, people with
disabilities, members of the LGBT community, and rural populations.
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