Extended Hospital Stays in Medicare Advantage and Traditional Medicare.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Hospitals have reported growing difficulty in discharging patients in a timely manner, often citing bottlenecks in postacute care. Medicare Advantage plans, now the dominant form of Medicare coverage, may contribute to these delays due to administrative and network constraints, yet national evidence is lacking.

Objective

To quantify changes in hospital length of stay for Medicare Advantage vs traditional Medicare beneficiaries.

Design, setting, and participants

This retrospective cohort study used Medicare claims from 2017 through the third quarter of 2023. The sample included short-stay inpatient admissions to US acute care and critical access hospitals. Adjusted analyses were conducted on a 20% random sample, with subgroup analyses of patients discharged

SUBMITTER: McGarry BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12418216 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature