Seriously ill patients who received palliative care incurred $6,900 less in hospital costs per Medicaid admission than a matched group of patients, according to a study in Health Affairs.
In the study, which was conducted at four New York state hospitals, palliative care consultation teams cared for about 4 percent of total Medicaid admissions. The reductions realized ranged from an average $4,098 for patients discharged alive to $7,563 for patients who died in the hospital.
Patients receiving palliative care — which reduces symptoms, particularly pain, rather than treating the underlying causes — spent less time in intensive care, were less likely to die in the ICU and were more likely to receive hospice referrals than the matched group.
If every hospital in the state with 150 or more beds had a fully operational palliative care consultation team, New York Medicaid could realize $84 million to $252 million in annual savings.
Read the Health Affairs report on palliative care.
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