Early Accountable Care Organization Results in End-of-Life Spending Among Cancer Patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Spending on cancer patients is substantial and has increased in recent years. Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are arguably the most important national experiment to control health-care spending. How ACOs are managing patients with cancer at the end of life (EOL) is largely unknown. We conducted this study with the objective of determining whether becoming an ACO is associated with subsequent changes in EOL spending or utilization among patients with cancer.

Methods

Using national Medicare claims from 2011 to 2015, we identified patients who died in 2012 (pre-ACO, n = 12 248) and 2015 (post-ACO, n = 12 248), assigning each decedent to a practice. ACOs were matched to non-ACOs within the same geographic region. We used a difference-in-difference model to exami

SUBMITTER: Lam MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6910163 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature