Seniors with several chronic conditions are particularly susceptible to illness and a hospital stay because exposure to the coronavirus, according to newly updated data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Money Talks News’ recent article entitled “Seniors With These 7 Diseases Are Most Often Hospitalized for COVID-19” reports that CMS says that nearly 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries were diagnosed with COVID-19 from January until the middle of September, and of those, more than 332,000 were hospitalized with a COVID-19 diagnosis during that time.
CMS says that as of October 9, it noted that the data “will continue to change as CMS processes additional claims and encounters for the reporting period.” The numbers show that seven chronic conditions were most common among the Medicare beneficiaries who had been hospitalized:
- Hypertension: 80%
- Hyperlipidemia: 62%
- Chronic kidney disease: 51%
- Diabetes: 50%
- Anemia: 48%
- Ischemic heart disease: 46%
- Rheumatoid arthritis/osteoarthritis: 46%
Of those who were hospitalized, 21% died and 32% were discharged. The rest were transferred to skilled nursing facilities (22%), home health care (14%), hospice (5%), or other health care settings. Roughly half of the hospital stays lasted for fewer than eight days, and 12% of the stays were at least 21 days.
The research shows that the coronavirus is impacting people of color, older adults and the poor more frequently. This disparity also appears in the Medicare data. CMS says COVID-19 hospitalization rates are extremely high for:
- Black beneficiaries (1,263 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries);
- Hispanic beneficiaries (967 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries);
- Beneficiaries who are age 85 or older (1,003 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries);
- Beneficiaries who are age 75 to 84 (604 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries); and
- Beneficiaries enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, the government insurance program for people with low incomes (1,374 hospitalizations per 100,000 beneficiaries).
In contrast, the overall rate for all Medicare beneficiaries was 517 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.
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Reference: Money Talks News (Nov. 19, 2020) “Seniors With These 7 Diseases Are Most Often Hospitalized for COVID-19”
