Research from University of Chicago NORC Has Provided New Data on Parkinson’s Disease (Care access and utilization among medicare beneficiaries living with Parkinson’s disease): Neurodegenerative Diseases and Conditions – Parkinson’s Disease

Health Policy and Law Daily

2023 JUL 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- A new study on Parkinson’s disease is now available. According to news originating from the University of Chicago NORC by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “An estimated 90% of people living with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the US are covered by Medicare health insurance. How these beneficiaries use and engage the health care system is important to understand in the face of a rapidly growing PD population.”

Funders for this research include Parkinson’s Foundation; Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson’s Research.

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from University of Chicago NORC: “Here, we analyzed health care utilization patterns of those with a PD diagnosis enrolled in Medicare in 2019. By our estimates, PD beneficiaries number 685,116 or 1.2% of the total Medicare population. Compared to the overall Medicare population, 56.3% are male (vs 45.6%), 77.9% over age 70 (vs 57.1%), 14.7% people of color (vs 20.7%), and 16.0% are rural residents (vs 17.5%). Our analysis identified significant disparities in care. Surprisingly, 40% of PD beneficiaries (n = 274,046) did not see a neurologist at all during the calendar year and only 9.1% visited a movement disorder specialist (MDS). Few Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with PD use recommended services such as physical, occupational, or speech therapy. People of color and rural residents were least likely to access a neurologist or therapy services.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Despite 52.9% of beneficiaries being diagnosed with depression, only 1.8% had a clinical psychology visit. Our findings emphasize the need for further research on population-specific barriers to accessing PD-related health care.”

For more information on this research see: Care access and utilization among medicare beneficiaries living with Parkinson’s disease. npj Parkinson’s Disease, 2023,9(1):1-7. (npj Parkinson’s Disease - https://www.nature.com/npjparkd/). The publisher for npj Parkinson’s Disease is Nature Portfolio.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-023-00523-y.