Utilization of Medicare services by beneficiaries having partial Medicare coverage.

With the rapid increases in Medicare expenditures, policymakers are constantly reevaluating the use of and the need for services provided. One approach to better understand these issues is to identify major subgroups of the Medicare population for more detailed evaluation. A disaggregation of the data can pinpoint critical high expenditure areas for further study and may suggest potential cost containment strategies. With funding from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), a series of investigations were designed to study utilization of services by particular types of Medicare beneficiaries. These include: Those who are continuously enrolled in the program over time. Those who died. Those who recently joined Medicare. Those who have one part of Medicare without the other part. This article discusses findings concerning beneficiaries who have only partial Medicare coverage (such as those who are enrolled under one part of Medicare without the other part).