title: Does the racial/ethnic composition of Medicare Advantage plans reflect their areas of operation?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the extent to which the racial/ethnic composition of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans reflects the composition of their areas of operation, given the potential incentives created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Quality Bonus Payments for such plans to avoid enrolling racial/ethnic minority beneficiaries.
  
  
  METHODS
  2009 Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (MCAHPS) survey and administrative data from the Medicare Enrollment Database.
  
  
  METHODS
  We defined each plan's area of operation as all counties in which it had MA enrollees, and we created a matrix of race/ethnicity by plan by county of residence to assess the racial/ethnic distribution of each plan's enrollees in comparison with the racial/ethnic composition of MA beneficiaries in its operational area.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is little evidence that health plans are selectively underenrolling blacks, Latinos, or Asians to a substantial degree. A small but potentially important subset of plans disproportionately serves minority beneficiaries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide a baseline profile that will enable crucial ongoing monitoring to assess how the implementation of Quality Bonus Payments may affect MA plan coverage of minority populations.
authors.affiliation: Rand Health, Rand Corporation, Arlington, VA.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weinick
authors.forename: Amelia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haviland
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hambarsoomian
authors.forename: Marc N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020398:Medicare Part C / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Medicare Advantage; Race/ethnicity; public quality reporting
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