Table 2. Characteristics of Study Sample of Medicare Beneficiaries with One or More of Four Key Chronic Conditions
Beneficiary CharacteristicsBeneficiaries in Sample*
Age (years)
    65–7451.0
    75–8433.7
    ≥8515.3
Female sex57.9
Median income in ZIP code area ($)
    0–43,54133.2
    43,541–58,77333.1
    ≥58,77333.7
Medicaid dual eligibles11.4
Patients with chronic condition of interest
    Asthma/COPD56.6
    Diabetes54.6
    Congestive heart failure21.8
Prior ambulatory care–sensitive hospitalization in 2007†2.0
HCC score‡
    Mean1.18
    Median0.89
    Mode0.30
    Range0.29–13.59

  • Data are percentages unless otherwise indicated.

  • Data sources: Medicare claims from years 2007 to 2009 for 123,760 beneficiaries whose usual physician was a respondent to the Center for Studying Health System Change Physician Survey 2008 and whose specialty could plausibly be a “medical home,” that is, family medicine, general internal medicine, geriatrics, medicine/pediatrics.

  • ↵* These 123,760 beneficiaries represent a weighted sample of 1,359,053 Medicare beneficiaries.

  • ↵† Ambulatory care–sensitive conditions of interest for this analysis were diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and congestive heart failure.

  • ↵‡ HCC is the hierarchical coexisting conditions score (for the analytic sample, which is sicker than the general Medicare population) based on community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries. A higher score indicates more severe comorbidity.