The report, based on Medicare claims filed between January and mid-May, found that more than 325,000 beneficiaries were diagnosed with coronavirus and nearly 110,000 of them were hospitalized.
And 28% of those hospitalized died, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Almost the same part went home.
Coronavirus hospitalizations have cost Medicare $ 1.9 billion in its fee-for-service program, which pays providers for services rendered, or approximately $ 23,100 per patient, on average.
“The data also confirms persistent and stubborn disparities in health outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities,” said Seema Verma, the agency’s administrator.
Overall, there were almost 525 cases per 100,000 Medicaid enrollees.
People age 85 and older had a rate of nearly 1,150 diagnoses per 100,000 enrollees, compared to approximately 350 per 100,000 among people ages 65 to 74 and 550 cases per 100,000 for people ages 75 to 84.
Among the poorest Medicare recipients who are also eligible for Medicaid, the rate was more than 1,400 cases per 100,000 members, compared to 325 diagnoses per 100,000 recipients for those with only Medicare.
And those who qualify for Medicare because they have end-stage kidney disease, who often have to leave home for dialysis, were more than five times more likely to have been diagnosed than the elderly and disabled in the program.
Similar divisions were found among Medicare beneficiaries who had to be hospitalized. Overall, the rate was 175 instances among 100,000 recipients.
But the black and Hispanic enrollment rates were nearly 475 and more than 250 hospitalizations per 100,000 recipients, respectively. Among white and Asian recipients, the rates were approximately 125 and almost 200 instances per 100,000 recipients, respectively.
Half of those hospitalized spent up to seven days there, while 9% stayed three weeks or more.
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