Impact of COVID-19 on Medicare Beneficiaries Well-Being
CMS has published a Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey on COVID-19 experience among the Medicare population. The telephone survey, conducted from June 10 to July 15, 2020, includes 11,114 Medicare beneficiaries’ responses.
A few highlights of the survey results include:
- 21% of beneficiaries reported needing health care for something other than COVID-19 but not getting it because of the pandemic
- The most common reason the beneficiary decided to forego care was not wanting to risk being at a medical facility (45%)
- 36% of beneficiaries reported forgone regular medical check-ups and treatment for an ongoing condition.
- 41% of female beneficiaries reported feeling less socially connected compared to 31% of male beneficiaries
- 56% reported that traditional news (e.g., TV, radio, websites, newspapers) was their primary source of COVID-19 information. Only 2% reported that social media was their primary source of COVID-19 information.
Click here for a summary infographic of the survey results.