CMS Releases Interactive Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool
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.
“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 LLP 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.