The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) recently released a data book on beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. The data book includes statistics on the characteristics of dual-eligible beneficiaries, enrollment, utilization, and spending.
The groups reported that in 2021, individuals enrolled in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare who were dually eligible for Medicaid had a higher use of Medicare inpatient hospital services than their non-dual Medicare beneficiary counterparts (22% vs. 13%). Additionally, per-user Medicare FFS spending was higher for dual-eligible beneficiaries ($27,207 vs. $22,092).
The number of dual-eligible beneficiaries increased by 2% nationally between 2018 and 2021. New York experienced a 2.6% increase while Connecticut, New Jersey, and Rhode Island had increases of 2.2%, 1.4%, and 1.3%, respectively.
The report also highlighted the shift away from FFS Medicare and FFS Medicaid towards managed care enrollment. The share of dual-eligible beneficiaries who were enrolled in FFS Medicare and FFS Medicaid declined between 2018 and 2021 by 14 and 4.9 percentage points, respectively. Conversely, the share of dual-eligible beneficiaries whose only Medicare enrollment was in Medicare Advantage increased by 12.9 percentage points, and the share of dual-eligible beneficiaries with at least one month of comprehensive Medicaid managed care enrollment increased by 7.5 percentage points over the same period.