End-of-Life Spending and Healthcare Utilization Among Older Adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

End-of-life spending and healthcare utilization among older adults with COPD have not been previously described.

Methods

We examined data on Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years or older with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who died during the period of 2013-2014. End-of-life measures were retrospectively reviewed for 2 years prior to death. Hospital referral regions (HRRs) were categorized into quintiles of age-sex-race-adjusted overall spending during the last 2 years of life. Geographic quintile variation in spending and healthcare utilization was examined across the continuum.

Results

We investigated data on 146,240 decedents with COPD from 306 HRRs. Age-sex-race-adjusted overall spending per decedent during the last 2 years of life varied

SUBMITTER: Iyer AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319886 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature