Table 1.
Characteristics of the National Sample and the Sample Attributed to 310 Large, Diverse Health Systems.*
| Characteristic | All Beneficiaries | Black Beneficiaries | White Beneficiaries | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Sample | Sample in 310 Health Systems | National Sample | Sample in 310 Health Systems | National Sample | Sample in 310 Health Systems | |
| No. of beneficiaries | 1,297,519 | 615,089 | 283,881 | 159,363 | 1,013,638 | 455,726 |
| Person-yr | ||||||
| Total no. | 2,197,153 | 896,807 | 468,577 | 232,587 | 1,728,576 | 664,220 |
| Contributed by Black beneficiaries (%) | 21.3 | 25.9 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| Years contributed (%) | ||||||
| Only 2016 | 10.2 | 18.9 | 12.0 | 19.3 | 9.7 | 18.8 |
| Only 2017 | 7.9 | 18.3 | 9.1 | 17.7 | 7.5 | 18.5 |
| Both 2016 and 2017 | 81.9 | 62.8 | 78.8 | 63.0 | 82.7 | 62.8 |
| Age | ||||||
| Mean (yr) | 50.5 | 50.4 | 50.0 | 49.9 | 50.7 | 50.6 |
| Distribution (%) | ||||||
| 18–24 yr | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| 25–29 yr | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 2.9 | 3.0 |
| 30–34 yr | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.6 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 5.1 |
| 35–39yr | 6.9 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.9 |
| 40–44 yr | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.7 |
| 45–49 yr | 12.1 | 12.2 | 11.8 | 11.9 | 12.2 | 12.3 |
| 50–54 yr | 18.1 | 18.1 | 17.9 | 17.9 | 18.2 | 18.1 |
| 55–59 yr | 24.1 | 24.0 | 23.7 | 23.6 | 24.2 | 24.1 |
| 60–64 yr | 20.5 | 20.2 | 19.7 | 19.5 | 20.7 | 20.5 |
| Female sex (%) | 52.8 | 53.7 | 56.2 | 57.0 | 51.9 | 52.6 |
| Long-term care (%)† | 9.2 | 9.3 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 9.5 | 9.9 |
| HCC score‡ | 1.10±1.15 | 1.15±1.20 | 1.19±1.25 | 1.22±1.27 | 1.08±1.12 | 1.13±1.17 |
Plus–minus values are means ±SD. The unit of analysis is the person-year. The overall national sample included all the person-years that were contributed by beneficiaries who met the following study criteria: at least 12 months of fee-for-service inpatient, outpatient, and prescription plan enrollment in 2016, 2017, or both years; at least one visit for primary care services (for attribution to a single health care organization in the calendar year); and Black or non-Hispanic White race indicator derived from the Medicare Beneficiary Summary file. The 310 health systems studied were those with at least 200 person-years contributed by Black patients and at least 200 person-years contributed by White patients across the 2016–2017 study period. These systems were included in the system-level analyses. These 310 systems included 47.4% of all beneficiaries in the national sample and 56.1% of Black beneficiaries.
Long-term care indicates that a long-term care pharmacy dispensed at least half the beneficiary’s annual prescriptions. Data regarding the pharmacy-type variable are from the Medicare Part D Pharmacy Characteristics file.
The Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) score is a risk-score assignment that is used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to calculate risk-adjusted payments. Scores generally range from 0.7 to 1.5, with higher scores indicating higher morbidity and predicting higher medical spending.