NHPCO NewsLine Winter 2021 - 9

Reaching Diverse Communities
In 2019, almost 54 percent of white Medicare beneficiary decedents used hospice
care (53.8 percent). Nearly 43 percent (42.7) of Hispanic Medicare beneficiary
decedents and almost 41 percent (40.8) of Black Medicare beneficiary decedents
enrolled in hospice in 2019. For the hospice community, which is committed to
equity and access, these figures show significant progress over the last two
decades as well as a need for continued improvement.
Figure 7: % of Medicare decedents by race who used hospice
White
Hispanic
Black
Asian American
53.8%
42.7%
40.8%
39.8%
American Indian/Alaska Native 38.5%
Hospice utilization by race
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Medicare decedents by race
Source: MedPAC March 2021 Report to Congress, Table 11-2
Note: In previous years, the NHPCO Facts and Figures has presented data on the share of Medicare beneficiaries
who used hospice by race. In an effort to focus on equity, we are now presenting data from the
2019 MedPAC March report to Congress, Table 11-2, focused on the percentage of Medicare decedents by
race who used hospice.
Last year we used the 2018 PUF data from CMS to report on race and
ethnicity. It was not a clear representation for what the data shows is actually
happening, which the MedPAC data more accurately reflects. The data this
year is much more representative of Medicare decedents by race, and the
calculation of utilization is within the Medicare decedents who died, by race.
There have been some questions about the difference between the data share
in the 2020 editionr of the report and this new edition. A MedPAC staff
member shared an explanation of the differences between the data used last
year (CMS PUF data) and data used this year (MedPAC numbers), " Regarding,
the CMS data, I believe that data is tabulated differently.
I think that CMS is
looking at the group of beneficiaries that used hospice and calculating the
share of the group that is white, Black, Hispanic, etc. So, the eight percent of
hospice users being Black reflects that Blacks are roughly that share of the
overall U.S. population (12.1 percent of U.S. population). "
Late Hospice Access
Hospice professionals continue to be concerned about the number of people
accessing hospice care late in the course of an illness. The NHPCO report
Newsline / Winter 2021 9

NHPCO NewsLine Winter 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Winter 2021