title: Participation in the Qualified Medical Beneficiary Program.
abstract: This article has three objectives: to estimate how many eligible elderly beneficiaries are participating in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program; to determine the characteristics of participating and non participating eligibles; and to identify the most significant barriers to program participation. We used data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) and the Medicare Buy-In file. We found that 41 percent of QMB eligibles are enrolled in the program; participation is higher for poor and less educated beneficiaries, those in poorer health, rural residents, African Americans, and Hispanics. Finally, we found that, in general, eligible beneficiaries are ill informed about the program.
authors.affiliation: Project HOPE Center for Health Affairs, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Bernardin
authors.forename: W N
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Bayer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D003710:Demography; D004608:Eligibility Determination; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011203:Poverty; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States