Emergency Care Use and the Medicare Hospice Benefit for Individuals with Cancer with a Poor Prognosis.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To compare patterns of emergency department (ED) use and inpatient admission rates for elderly adults with cancer with a poor prognosis who enrolled in hospice to those of similar individuals who did not.

Design

Matched case-control study.

Setting

Nationally representative sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with cancer with a poor prognosis who died in 2011.

Participants

Beneficiaries in hospice matched to individuals not in hospice on time from diagnosis of cancer with a poor prognosis to death, region, age, and sex.

Measurements

Comparison of ED use and inpatient admission rates before and after hospice enrollment for beneficiaries in hospice and controls.

Results

Of 272,832 matched beneficiaries, 81% visited the ED in t

SUBMITTER: Obermeyer Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4803467 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature