Rural enrollment in Medicare Advantage growing rapidly in 2007, especially in private fee-for-service plans.

Unlabelled: Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans has more than tripled since the inception of the MA program at the beginning of 2006. However, rural enrollment remains well below urban enrollment as a percentage of the eligible population. This policy brief provides findings about enrollment in the newly designed MA program in rural and urban areas across the United States and updates early findings from analysis of the Medicare+Choice/ MA program presented in previous RUPRI Center policy briefs.

Factors influencing organ donation decisions by African Americans: a review of the literature.

The purpose of this article is to review the literature from 1980 to 2005 regarding organ donation decision making by African Americans for themselves and their loved ones and recommend improvements in subsequent studies. Using the behavioral model of health services utilization as an organizing framework, the review procedure consists of a (1) search of health and medical literature using several key words and eight indexes, (2) selection of articles based on specific criteria, and (3) review of each article with regard to the population and sample used, study design, dependent variables addressed, and its findings. The review indicates that predisposing, enabling, and need factors each influence African Americans' organ donation decision making.

Rural enrollment in Medicare advantage is concentrated in private fee-for-service plans.

Enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans more than doubled in rural areas in 2006, the first year of the MA program. However, rural enrollment remains well below urban enrollment as a percentage of the eligible population. This policy brief provides findings about enrollment in the newly designed MA program in rural and urban areas across the United States and updates previous findings published in RUPRI Center policy briefs.

Enrollment in Medicare Part D for rural beneficiaries is encouraging.

This policy brief provides findings about Medicare beneficiary enrollment in prescription drug plans (PDPs) in rural and urban areas across the United States, updating early findings from an analysis of plans presented in a previous RUPRI Center policy brief (PB2006-8).

Medicare Part D: early findings on enrollment and choices for rural beneficiaries.

On January 1, 2006, the Medicare program began offering prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D) to over 42 million Medicare beneficiaries. This policy brief provides a first snapshot of enrollment in rural and urban areas across the United States and outlines the early findings from an analysis of plans available to rural persons under Medicare's Part D program. The data in this brief will be updated as new data are available from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).