All-cause mortality and hospitalization rates and inpatient expenditures among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries decreased from 1999 to 2013.
All-cause mortality and hospitalization rates and inpatient expenditures among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries decreased from 1999 to 2013, according to a study published in JAMA.
According to lead author Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, MS, professor of cardiology at the Yale School of Medicine and director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, the study’s findings suggest a “remarkable improvement in health and healthcare” in the United States. He attributed this improvement to changes in healthcare technology, delivery, and behaviors.
“The improvements that we observed were extraordinarily broad based,” he explained in an interview with JAMA. “We looked at various different subgroups: we looked by age, we looked by sex, we looked by race. And there was evidence of these improvements everywhere. There still remains some disparities between blacks and whites but both groups experienced this dramatic improvement.”
Dr Krumholz and colleagues examined a sample of 68,374,904 adults age 65 years or older and in Medicare fee-for-service or Medicare Advantage determined all-cause mortality among this population declined from 5.3% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2013. Inpatient expenditures declined from $3290 to $2801 per Medicare fee-for-service beneficiary.
Care for fee-for-service beneficiaries in the last 6 months of life also improved with hospitalizations down from 131 to 103 per 100 deaths and inpatient expenditures decreased from $17,423 in 2009 to $13,388 in 2013.
During the time studied, more patients were being discharged to rehabilitation and nursing facilities or with home healthcare and the proportion of patients discharged to home without care steadily declined.
“Even though it is difficult to disentangle the specific reasons for improvement, it is clear that over the past 15 years there have been marked reductions in mortality, hospitalization, and adverse hospital outcomes among the Medicare population aged 65 years or older,” the authors wrote.
Navigating Health Policy in an Election Year: Insights From Dr Dennis Scanlon
April 2nd 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with Dennis Scanlon, PhD, the editor in chief of The American Journal of Accountable Care®, about prior authorization, price transparency, the impact of health policy on the upcoming election, and more.
Listen
Commonwealth Fund Report Details Pervasive Racial and Ethnic Disparities in US Health Care, Outcomes
April 18th 2024Using 25 health system performance indicators, the Commonwealth Fund 2024 State Health Disparities Report evaluated racial and ethnic disparities in health care and health outcomes both within and across US states and highlighted the urgent need for equitable health care policies and practices in the US.
Read More
Exploring Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Variations
March 26th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the March 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on variations in prior authorization use across Medicare Advantage plans.
Listen