New Research Resource: Interactive Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool

Released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health.
From the Launch Announcement:

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) released a new interactive map to increase understanding of geographic disparities in chronic disease among Medicare beneficiaries.
The Mapping Medicare Disparities (MMD) Tool identifies disparities in health outcomes, utilization, and spending by race and ethnicity and geographic location. Understanding geographic differences in disparities is important to informing policy decisions and efficiently targeting populations and geographies for interventions.
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Racial and ethnic minorities experience disproportionately high rates of chronic diseases, and are more likely to experience difficulty accessing high quality of care than other individuals. The identification of areas with large differences in the proportions of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases is an important step for informing and planning health equity activities and initiatives.

The Mapping Medicare Disparities Tool features:

• A dynamic interface with data on the prevalence of 18 chronic conditions, end stage renal disease, or a disability; Medicare spending, hospital and emergency department (ED) utilization, preventable hospitalizations, readmissions, and mortality rates.

• The ability to sort by state or county of residence, sex, age, dual-eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, and race and ethnicity.

• Built-in benchmarking features to investigate disparities within counties and across racial and ethnic groups, and within racial and ethnic groups across counties.

The MMD Tool was developed in collaboration with KPMG LLC and NORC at the University of Chicago as part of the CMS Equity Plan for Improving Quality in Medicare.

Direct to Mapping Medicare Disparities (MMD) Tool
Additional Resources

• MMD Tool Overview

• MMD Tool FAQ

• Quick Start Guide

• MMD Tool Technical Documentation

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