Associations Between End-of-Life Cancer Care Patterns and Medicare Expenditures.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which patterns of intensive end-of-life care explain geographic variation in end-of-life care expenditures among cancer decedents.

Methods

Using the SEER-Medicare database, we identified 90,465 decedents who were diagnosed with cancer in 2004-2011. Measures of intensive end-of-life care included chemotherapy received within 14 days of death; more than 1 emergency department visit, more than 1 hospitalization, or 1 or more intensive care unit (ICU) admissions within 30 days of death; in-hospital death; and hospice enrollment less than 3 days before death. Using hierarchical generalized linear models, we estimated risk-adjusted expenditures in the last month of life for each hospital referral region and identifi

SUBMITTER: Wang SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577560 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature