Does Medicare Coverage Improve Cancer Detection and Mortality Outcomes?

Medicare is a large government health insurance program in the United States that covers about 60 million people. This paper analyzes the effects of Medicare insurance on health for a group of people in urgent need of medical care: people with cancer. We used a regression discontinuity design to assess impacts of near-universal Medicare insurance at age 65 on cancer detection and outcomes, using population-based cancer registries and vital statistics data. Our analysis focused on the three tumor sites for which screening is recommended both before and after age 65: breast, colorectal, and lung cancer. At age 65, cancer detection increased by 72 per 100,000 population among women and 33 per 100,000 population among men; cancer mortality also decreased by nine per 100,000 population for women but did not significantly change for men. In a placebo check, we found no comparable changes at age 65 in Canada. This study provides the first evidence to our knowledge that near-universal access to Medicare at age 65 is associated with improvements in population-level cancer mortality.

Does Identification of Previously Undiagnosed Conditions Change Care-Seeking Behavior?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether identification of previously undiagnosed high cholesterol, hypertension, and/or diabetes during an in-home assessment impacts care seeking among Medicare beneficiaries. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Data from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, which recruited African American and white participants across the continental United States from 2003-2007, were linked to Medicare claims. STUDY DESIGN: We used panel data models to analyze changes in doctor visits for evaluation and management of conditions after participants were assessed, utilizing the study's rolling recruitment to control for secular trends. DATA EXTRACTION METHODS: We extracted Medicare claims for the 24 months before through 24 months after assessment via REGARDS for 5,884 participants. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Semi-annual doctor visits for previously undiagnosed conditions increased by 22 percentage points (95 percent confidence interval: 16-28) 2 years following assessment. The effect was similar by gender, race, region, and Medicaid, but it may have been lower among participants who lacked a usual health care provider. CONCLUSIONS: In-home assessment of cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose can increase doctor visits for individuals with previously undiagnosed conditions. However, biomarker assessment may have more limited impact among individuals with low access to care.