Medicare Beneficiaries Hospitalized With COVID-19 Experienced a Wide Range of Serious, Complex Conditions

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of Americans, resulting in more than 600,000 deaths. Medicare beneficiaries have been particularly affected and remain vulnerable to new variants and additional surges of the virus. Clinicians and researchers are still working to fully understand the damage to the body from the disease and what underlying chronic conditions potentially lead to more severe complications or hospitalization. Understanding the types of conditions for which Medicare beneficiaries with COVID-19 are being treated and who was more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 can help hospitals and health officials better prepare for and address the wide-ranging and extensive needs of COVID 19 patients, particularly in the event of localized surges of cases. Such knowledge will also assist in the Federal, State, and local response to the pandemic by providing a better picture of the needs of these hospitalized beneficiaries. This report describes the complex care needs of beneficiaries hospitalized with COVID-19. It focuses on surges in COVID-19 hospitalizations in six localities and builds upon prior OIG work that describes the extent to which hospitals have been strained by COVID-19. As we noted in the 2021 report about hospital experiences during the pandemic, hospitals have been operating in "survival mode" for an extended period of time. They have also experienced difficulty balancing the complex and resource-intensive care needed for COVID-19 patients with efforts to resume routine hospital care.