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Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) enrollment has grown more rapidly than fee-for-service Medicare Enrollment in the last decade, raising questions about changes in the characteristics of different enrollee populations for Medicare Part A only, Medicare Part A & B and Medicare Part C. Microsoft’s Precision Population Health Group partnered with CareJourney to advance understanding of the changes of these three different enrollment types by leveraging the 100% All Medicare Eligibility Enrollment data that CareJourney has access to through its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Virtual Research Data Center (VRDC).
We used 2011-2019 Medicare Eligibility Enrollment files to identify Medicare beneficiaries and classify them into three enrollment types: Medicare Part A only, Medicare Part A and B, and Medicare Part C. We analyzed two age groups: those younger than 65 and those age 65 and older. For each Medicare enrollment type and age group, we calculated the number of enrollees, the mean age of enrollees, the proportion of enrollees who were female, the proportion of enrollees who were black, the proportion of those concurrently enrolled in Medicaid, and the proportion whose initial reason for Medicare eligibility was old age and survivor’s benefit.