Issue Brief 2: Low Consumption & Higher Medicare Cost: Consumption Clusters in a Medicare Fee-for-Service Population

February 24, 2010 The National Minority Quality Forum released the study by researchers Gary Puckrein, Ph.D., Sean D. Clearly, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Mira Shapiro, M.S. After analyzing six years of Medicare claims data for beneficiaries with diabetes the researchers found that beneficiaries who initially consumed the lowest level of services—as evidenced by the level of reimbursement associated with their care—were more likely to cost the program significantly more in the short term. Furthermore, the study identifies a cluster of five consumption group—crisis consumers, heavy consumers, moderate consumers, light consumers, and low consumers . . .