MCBS Highlights: Medicare FFS Populations Versus HMO Populations: 1993

The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is a powerful tool for analyzing enrollees' access to medical care (Adler, 1994). Based on a stratified random sample, we can derive information about the health care use, expenditure, and financing of Medicare's 36 million enrollees. We can also learn about those enrollees' health status, living arrangements, and access to and satisfaction with care. In the charts that follow, we have presented some findings on enrollee use of fee-forservice (FFS) care versus health maintenance organization (HMO) membership. The charts demonstrate the role of demographic factors in enrollee mode of care.