Advance directives completion and hospital out-of-pocket expenditures.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Health care costs remain high at the end of life. It is not known if there is a relationship between advance directive (AD) completion and hospital out-of-pocket costs. This analysis investigated whether AD completion was associated with lower hospital out-of-pocket costs at end of life.

Methods

We used Health and Retirement Study participants who died between 2000 and 2014 (N = 9228) to examine the association between AD completion status and hospital out-of-pocket spending in the last 2 years of life through the use of a two-part model controlling for socioeconomic status, death-related characteristics and health insurance coverage.

Results

About 44% of decedents had completed ADs. Having an AD was significantly associated with $673 lower hospital out-o

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9325451 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature