Health Disparities in Cost of Care in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease: An Analysis Across 4 State Medicaid Populations

Objectives: To investigate health disparities with respect to cost of care across 4 state Medicaid populations. Methods: Data were obtained from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for this retrospective study. Patients were enrolled in a California, Florida, New Jersey, or New York Medicaid programs during 2004, with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision 331.0). Outcome of interest was cost of care. Decomposition of cost to calculate disparities was estimated using the Oaxaca-Blinder model. An a priori alpha level of .01 was used. Results: Approximately 158 974 individuals qualified for this study. Disparities were found to exist between blacks and whites (with blacks having higher costs; P < .0001), whites and others (with whites having higher costs; P < .0001), blacks and Hispanics (with blacks having higher costs; P <.0001), blacks and others (with blacks having higher costs; P <.0001), and Hispanics and others (with Hispanics having higher costs; P <.0001). Conclusions: Disparities in cost among minority-to-minority populations were just as prevalent, if not higher, than minority-white disparities.