Black Covid-19 Medicare Patients More Likely to Be Hospitalized

Black Medicare beneficiaries were hospitalized with Covid-19 at nearly four times the rate of Whites, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported Monday.

The new data shows that more than 325,000 Medicare beneficiaries were infected with Covid-19 between Jan. 1 and May 16, while nearly 110,000 were hospitalized.

The data confirms what other researchers have previously reported: that Covid-19 has disproportionately affected people of color.

Among racial/ethnic groups, Black Medicare beneficiaries had the highest hospitalization rate, at 465 per 100,000, the CMS data shows. They were followed by Hispanics, with 258 hospitalizations per 100,000. Asian beneficiaries were hospitalized at ...