MedPage Today (1/17, Firth) reports, “Changes to Medicare policy that lowered out-of-pocket costs for outpatient mental health and substance use disorder (MHSUD) care, to achieve parity with typical cost-sharing under Medicare, were associated with uneven improvements in the use of these services across racial and ethnic groups,” researchers concluded in a study that “included 286,276 traditional Medicare beneficiaries with the cost-sharing reduction who had incomes at 100% to 135% of the federal poverty level…and 734,280 beneficiaries who received free care in 2008 who had incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level.” The study revealed that “improvements in access to care” were “largely only significant for white beneficiaries.” The findings were published in the January issue of the journal Health Affairs.
Related Links:
— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)