Medicare Providing Better Care, Study Finds

January 14, 2003
A study finds that medical care has improved substantially for Medicare beneficiaries since 1998 but notes there is plenty of room for further progress.

The study, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at 22 health care measures in all 50 states.

It found that in 1998-99 the average beneficiary had a 69 percent chance of receiving care that was appropriate, but that number increased to 73 percent in 2000-01.

Yet officials noted that there is room for improvement. The AHA said quality is an issue of paramount importance and America's hospitals are dedicated to advancing quality care and assuring patient safety.

"The problem is not bad physicians, bad nurses, or bad hospitals; it is a broken health care system that allows too many patients to fall through the cracks," said Stephen Jencks, M.D., assistant surgeon general and the study's lead author. The full text of the report can be found www.jama.com.