Care quality metrics in Medicare during COVID-19 pandemic

To examine the impact on quality of care for individuals enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans or traditional Medicare (TM) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Retrospective cohort study.

The study examined beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare from 2017 through 2021. Beneficiaries were divided into 4 cohorts based on their enrollment in TM or MA and the year of enrollment in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, or 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. For each cohort, 12 clinical quality measures were constructed, including 4 screening measures requiring in-person visits and 8 medication management and adherence measures.

A total of 3,190,208 Medicare beneficiaries were included (58.4% female; mean age, 73.0 years). In both 2019 and 2021, the MA program performed significantly better than TM across the 12 clinical quality measures. Compared with the year before the pandemic, both programs experienced a decrease in screening measures that required in-person visits during the pandemic, with a slightly higher decrease for the MA plans. In contrast, measures of medication management and adherence improved for both programs, but especially for MA plans.

MA plans continued to outperform TM on clinical quality measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.