CMS’ Ability to Address Health Disparities Impeded by Inaccurate Race and Ethnicity Data, OIG Says
- June 17, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) ability to assess health disparities is impeded by inaccuracies in Medicare’s race and ethnicity data, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a data brief issued June 15.
Race and ethnicity data are foundational to identifying and understanding health disparities among Medicare beneficiaries and to assessing the effectiveness of efforts to reduce such disparities. Accordingly, it is critical that the data are accurate, complete, and comprehensive, OIG said.
Medicare’s enrollment data contain race and ethnicity information for about 66 million beneficiaries, but the information is less accurate for some groups when compared to self-reported data—particularly for beneficiaries identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, or Hispanic, according to the report.
The report compared Medicare enrollment data to nursing home assessment data, which contain self-reported race and ethnicity information for about 5 million beneficiaries, and found two fundamental errors: (1) enrollment data sometimes identify beneficiaries as a race and ethnicity with which they do not identify themselves on the nursing home assessment; and (2) the enrollment data do not capture the race and ethnicity with which these beneficiaries do identify.
In addition, Medicare’s enrollment data on race and ethnicity are inconsistent with federal data collection standards, the report found.
Although CMS has work underway to improve the quality of the race and ethnicity data it collects, OIG said CMS must prioritize improve the effort as “the need for better data is pressing.”
OIG recommend that CMS: (1) develop its own source of race and ethnicity data instead of relying on Social Security Administration data, (2) use self-reported race and ethnicity information to improve data for current beneficiaries, (3) develop a process to ensure that the data are as standardized as possible, and (4) educate beneficiaries about the agency’s efforts to improve race and ethnicity information.
Read the report, Inaccuracies in Medicare's Race and Ethnicity Data Hinder the Ability to Assess Health Disparities (OEI-02-21-00100).