While chronically-ill Medicare patients spent less time in the hospital in 2007 compared to 2003, the intensity of care for patients who were hospitalized increased, according to a news release on the report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
The national average hospital-stay for chronically-ill Medicare patients was 11.3 days in 2007, compared to 10.9 in 2003, but patients were significantly more likely to be treated by 10 or more physicians in the last six months of life in 2007 than 2003. In that four year span, among the 35 academic medical centers studied, 22 had increases in the percentage of patients seeing 10 or more physicians in their last six months. Also increasing in the last six months of life was the number of ICU days.
“In addition to its effects on patients’ quality of life, unnecessarily aggressive care carries a high financial cost,” says David C. Goodman, MD, MS, lead author and co-principal investigator of the study, in the release. “About one-fourth of all Medicare spending goes to pay for the care of patients in their last year of life, and much of the growth in Medicare spending is the result of the high cost of treating chronic disease.”
Read the Dartmouth Atlas Project release on its study of Medicare patients and end-of-life care.
Read more about Medicare:
– Excess Costs of Medicare Advantage Plans Declining
– Medicare, Medicaid Cuts Expected in Upcoming Presidential Proposal
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