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Blacks were nearly four times more likely than whites to be hospitalized with COVID-19 among people with Medicare, the government said Monday. The analysis from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also found that having advanced kidney disease was an even more severe risk indicator for hospitalization than race, ethnicity, or being poor. “It reconfirms long-standing issues around disparities and vulnerable populations,” said Medicare administrator Seema Verma, adding that “race and ethnicity are far from the only story.″ (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/23)

Black people on Medicare, a program for people 65 and older, had the highest hospitalization rate for coronavirus, with 465 cases per 100,000 beneficiaries. Hispanics had 258 hospitalizations per 100,000 people on Medicare and Asians had 187 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the federal health insurance program for seniors. White people on Medicare had 123 coronavirus hospitalizations per 100,000. Each hospitalization costs Medicare about $23,000. Older Americans and those with medical conditions were the hardest hit. (Armour, 6/22)

New federal data reinforces the stark racial disparities that have appeared with COVID-19: According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Black Americans enrolled in Medicare were hospitalized with the disease at rates nearly four times higher than their white counterparts. Disparities were also striking among Hispanics and Asian Americans. Hispanics were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized as whites, while Asian Americans were about 50% more likely. Black and Hispanic beneficiaries were more likely to test positive for the coronavirus as well, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said. (Godoy, 6/22)

“The disparities in the data reflect longstanding challenges facing minority communities and low income older adults,” said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which released the data. The data showed that more than 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and May 16. Of those, more than 110,000 were hospitalized. (O'Donnell and Roy, 6/22)

Previous data has already shown that older Americans in general are more likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19; but the new CMS data highlights that, even among this group, racial and health disparities are dramatic. (Godoy, 6/22)

More than 325,000 people on Medicare were diagnosed with COVID-19 between Jan. 1 and May 16, and 110,000 people on Medicare were hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis this year through May 16, based on the data. Medicare payments for fee-for-service hospitalizations totaled $1.9 billion, with an average cost of $23,094 per hospitalization, CMS said. (Klar, 6/22)

Verma said the data show the need to focus on value-based care, rather than fee-for-service models that don't focus on quality of care for patients. "Our fee-for-service system is consistently showing itself to be insufficient for our most vulnerable Americans," Verma said. (Christ, 6/22)

Income is a potent force along with race in determining who among the nation’s vulnerable, older population has been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a federal analysis that lays bare stark disparities in the pandemic’s toll. The findings released Monday are based on billing records for people on Medicare who have contracted the virus. They echo the commonly understood pattern that black Americans are more likely to test positive for the virus and to be hospitalized for covid-19, the disease it causes, than other racial and ethnic groups. But they also point to the role of poverty as the pandemic has sped through U.S. communities in the winter and spring. (Goldstein, 6/22)

A new study by researchers at George Washington University found that children who are guaranteed continuous Medicaid eligibility are less likely to experience gaps in insurance coverage, but it's unclear if they had better health outcomes. Twenty-four states offered 12-month continuous eligibility for children in Medicaid, which helps ensure that kids don't lose coverage because of income changes and paperwork burdens, during the study period of 2016 to 2018. Researchers compared health measures for children under 18 in those states to those among children in states that don't offer continuous eligibility. (Livingston, 6/23)