This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

Date:  October 18, 1995
For Release:  Immediately
Contact:  HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145

Secretary Shalala said new studies by the Health Care Financing Administration show that access to health services remains high overall for Medicare beneficiaries. However, the studies also make clear that lower socioeconomic status and race remain risk factors for reduced use of certain services paid for by Medicare.

The report is the fifth in an annual series. It continues analyses in previous reports of racial disparities in the medical services used by Medicare beneficiaries. In addition, this year's report looks at effects of socioeconomic status, independent of race.

The report finds higher mortality and hospitalization rates for black Medicare beneficiaries, indicating that health status is lower among black beneficiaries than for whites. But in spite of lower health status, the data show that the rate of physician visits was lower for black beneficiaries than white beneficiaries.

HHS Deputy Secretary Walter Broadnax, speaking at a conference with representatives of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, invited researchers at HBCUs to make use of Medicare and Medicaid data to help better understand the barriers to care faced by minority beneficiaries and to aid in overcoming them. Broadnax was speaking at an HHS-supported conference on expanding the availability of data from the Health Care Financing Administration for HBCUs.

"The truth is that just about every health care problem in this country is exacerbated in Black America," Broadnax said. "It is time not only to understand these trends -- it is time to reverse them, once and for all."

"To remove these obstacles to care, all of us need to work together across disciplines and across the country," Broadnax said in his speech to the conference. "We need to tap into the deep reservoir of your experience and expertise, your ideas and your insights, so that we can better serve all Americans."

The conference, being held today and Thursday in Atlanta, Ga., is aimed at enhancing research opportunities for faculty members at HBCUs by improving availability of HHS data on health care utilization, cost and other issues.

The report also examined the links between disparities in access and income differences.

"The patterns of health care use which are documented in this report continue to suggest that black beneficiaries are facing more barriers to comprehensive, continuous care than white beneficiaries," said HCFA Administrator Bruce C. Vladeck, who oversees the Medicare program. "Our analysis also examines the role that income plays with regard to access to Medicare-provided services."

Looking at income factors, the studies found that:

• The rate of physician visits declines 18 percent for white beneficiaries and 12 percent for black beneficiaries as income decreases.

• Among the lowest income black beneficiaries, the rates of use of certain procedures usually requiring referrals from general physicians were lower than the rates for black beneficiaries at the highest income levels. These procedures include coronary artery bypass surgery and coronary angioplasty.

• Among white beneficiaries in the lowest income level, the rate of hospitalization for high-blood pressure was more than twice as high as the rate for beneficiaries at the highest income level.

Under the act, HHS is required to monitor and report annually to Congress on the impact of the implementation of the Medicare fee schedule on changes in utilization and access, by population groups, geographic areas, types of services and possible sources of inappropriate care.