How do the experiences of medicare beneficiary subgroups differ between managed care and original medicare?

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether disparities in health care experiences of Medicare beneficiaries differ between managed care (Medicare Advantage [MA]) and traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare. Data Sources. 132,937 MA and 201,444 FFS respondents to the 2007 Medicare Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. Study Design. We defined seven subgroup characteristics: low-income subsidy eligible, no high school degree, poor or fair self-rated health, age 85 and older, female, Hispanic, and black. We estimated disparities in CAHPS experience of care scores between each of these groups and beneficiaries without those characteristics within MA and FFS for 11 CAHPS measures and assessed differences between MA and FFS disparities in linear models. Principal Findings. The seven subgroup characteristics had significant (p