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How do Medicaid managed care (MCO) and fee-for-service (FFS) programs compare in terms of health care utilization after discharge home from the hospital?
Medicaid managed care is associated with lower emergency department use and higher follow-up rates after hospital discharge—but these gains are paired with higher readmission risk among older adults and persistently low overall follow-up, highlighting ongoing gaps in care transitions. In a cross-sectional analysis of 1.65 million hospital discharges among Medicaid beneficiaries from 2015–2019 and 2021–2022, we examined post-discharge health care utilization, including emergen
2 min read


How should safety-net ambulatory practices be defined—and how do different definitions compare?
Two ways to define safety-net ambulatory practices—by share (institution based) vs volume (population based) of underserved patients dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid—identify almost completely different groups of ambulatory practices. In a cross-sectional analysis of 2022 Medicare data, we examined 106,545 ambulatory practices serving 967,820 dually eligible beneficiaries to compare institution-based and population-based definitions of safety-net practices. Using an
1 min read


How are Medicare Advantage plans offering supplemental benefits that support independence at home?
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offering supplemental benefits to help older adults remain independent at home are becoming more common, but these benefits remain limited in scope, inconsistently provided over time, and about half of plans require cost-sharing—raising concerns about meaningful access for aging beneficiaries. In a national analysis of 2020–2025 Medicare Advantage plan benefit package and enrollment data, the PROPEL team examined trends in supplemental benefits s
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How do Medicare Advantage plans with reduced cardiologist cost-sharing vary over time, geography, and plan quality?
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offering reduced cost-sharing for cardiologists are becoming more common, but access remains uneven across counties—this benefit is more concentrated among higher-quality plans but not consistently aligned with areas of greatest cardiovascular care need. In a cross-sectional analysis of 2022–2024 Medicare Advantage data, the PROPEL team examined plan benefits, enrollment, county-level cardiologist supply, cardiovascular care infrastructure, and H
1 min read
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