Association of Expanded VA Hospice Care With Aggressive Care and Cost for Veterans With Advanced Lung Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Medicare hospice beneficiaries discontinue disease-modifying treatments because the hospice benefit limits access. While veterans have concurrent access to hospice care and Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center (VAMC)-provided treatments, the association of this with changes in treatment and costs of veterans' end-of-life care is unknown.

Objective

To determine whether increasing availability of hospice care, without restrictions on disease-modifying treatments, is associated with reduced aggressive treatments and medical care costs at the end of life.

Design, setting, and participants

A modified difference-in-differences study design, using facility fixed effects, compared patient outcomes during years with relatively high vs lower hospice use. This study e

SUBMITTER: Mor V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6567823 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature