New Resources Provide First Prevalence Estimates on the Medicare & Medicaid Population Living with Sickle Cell Disease in the United States

Office of Minority Health

New Resources Provide First Prevalence Estimates on the Medicare & Medicaid Population Living with Sickle Cell Disease in the United States

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released two data highlights detailing the national prevalence estimates of sickle cell disease (SCD) among Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) and Medicaid beneficiaries and a report comparing opioid utilization patterns among Medicare FFS beneficiaries with SCD to two populations with complex pain syndromes: non-SCD beneficiaries with cancer and non-SCD beneficiaries in hospice care.

Additionally, to support further research on SCD, CMS is releasing a new SCD indicator in the CMS Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse (CCW). CMS used the SCD indicator to produce the two data highlights.

CMS is committed to achieving equity for all beneficiaries including those living with SCD. In April 2019, CMS released the final Medicare Part D call letter that recommended exempting beneficiaries with SCD from safety edits when filling opioid prescriptions. CMS also funded the national expansion of an intervention developed to improve acute pain management through patient education for 3,000 patients with SCD in Memphis, TN in 2019, and expanded coverage for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) for Medicare beneficiaries with severe, symptomatic SCD who participate in an approved prospective clinical study in 2016.

Read more from the CMS Office of Minority Health at go.cms.gov/omh.