Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program: Enrollment Trends And Characteristics Of Low-Income Beneficiaries.

ABSTRACT: To address low take-up of Medicare Savings Programs for low-income Medicare beneficiaries, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued regulations in 2023 aimed at streamlining the enrollment process. We analyzed 2016-22 data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to examine recent take-up of the largest and most generous Medicare Savings Program, the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program. We compared beneficiary characteristics and cost-related barriers to care among QMB enrollees and beneficiaries who were eligible but not enrolled. QMB take-up rose from 62 percent in 2016 to 66 percent in 2022. QMB-eligible beneficiaries who were Asian or Hispanic were more likely than eligible White beneficiaries to enroll in the program. Eligible beneficiaries younger than age s

SUBMITTER: Koma JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12499954 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature