Health Care Costs Associated With Hospice Use For People With Dementia In The US.

ABSTRACT: Policy makers in the US are increasingly concerned that greater use of the Medicare hospice benefit by people with dementia is driving up costs. Yet this perspective fails to incorporate potential cost savings associated with hospice. We estimated the association between hospice use by people with dementia and health care costs, using Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data from the period 2002-19. For community-dwelling people with dementia, Medicare costs were lower for those who used hospice than for those who did not, whether hospice enrollment was in the last three days ($2,200) or last three months ($7,200) of life, primarily through lower inpatient care costs in the last days of life. In nursing homes, total and Medicare costs were lower for hospice users with dementia who enrolled

SUBMITTER: Aldridge MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12366792 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature