COVID Deepened Racial, Ethnic Disparities in Medicare Mortality Rates

After years of relative stability, the COVID-19 pandemic caused mortality rates to spike in 2020, with non-white populations experiencing far greater disparities. That's according to a September analysis of CMS data from Avalere Health, which found that non-white Medicare beneficiaries saw mortality rate increases 1.5 to 3.0 times higher than the white population. Overall life expectancy declined by an average of 1.5 years from 2019 to 2020, with researchers attributing 73.8% of the decrease to the pandemic.

 

SOURCE: "Disparities in Medicare Mortality Rates Occurred During the Pandemic," Avalere Health, Sept. 2, 2021. Visit https://bit.ly/2XKjb8s.