Health Care Spending, Use, and Financial Hardship Among Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Enrollees With Mental Health Symptoms.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry
; 32(6): 739-750, 2024 06.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38267358
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
We examined the differences in health care spending and utilization, and financial hardship between Traditional Medicare (TM) and Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees with mental health symptoms.DESIGN:
Cross-sectional study.PARTICIPANTS:
We identified Medicare beneficiaries with mental health symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 and the Kessler-6 Psychological Distress Scale in the 2015-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. MEASUREMENTS Outcomes included health care spending and utilization (both general and mental health services), and financial hardship. The primary independent variable was MA enrollment.RESULTS:
MA enrollees with mental health symptoms were 2.3 percentage points (95% CI -3.4, -1.2; relative difference 16.1%) less likely to have specialty mental health visits than TM enrollees with mental health symptoms. There were no significant differences in total health care spending, but annual out-of-pocket spending was $292 (95% CI 152-432; 18.2%) higher among MA enrollees with mental health symptoms than TM enrollees with mental health symptoms. Additionally, MA enrollees with mental health symptoms were 5.0 (95% CI 2.9-7.2; 22.3%) and 2.5 percentage points (95% CI 0.8-4.2; 20.9%) more likely to have difficulty paying medical bills over time and to experience high financial burden than TM enrollees with mental health symptoms.CONCLUSION:
Our findings suggest that MA enrollees with mental health symptoms were more likely to experience limited access to mental health services and high financial hardship compared to TM enrollees with mental health symptoms. There is a need to develop policies aimed at improving access to mental health services while reducing financial burden for MA enrollees.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Medicare
/
Gastos em Saúde
/
Medicare Part C
/
Estresse Financeiro
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article