• J Gen Intern Med · Feb 2004

    Comparative Study

    Differences in Medicare expenditures during the last 3 years of life.

    • Lisa R Shugarman, Diane E Campbell, Chloe E Bird, Jon Gabel, A LouisThomasT, and Joanne Lynn.
    • RAND, Santa Monica, Calif. 90407-2138, USA. Lisa_Shugarman@rand.org
    • J Gen Intern Med. 2004 Feb 1; 19 (2): 127135127-35.

    ObjectiveTo examine age, gender, race, and area income differences in Medicare expenditures in the 3 years before death.DesignCross-sectional study.ParticipantsA random sample of aged Medicare beneficiaries who died 1996 to 1999, N = 241,047.MeasuresWe estimate differences in mean Medicare expenditures by year before death and by age, gender, race, and area income, adjusting for comorbidities and Medicaid enrollment.ResultsExpenditures for blacks are lower in the second and third years before death and are not significantly different from whites in the last year of life (LYOL) (y3 = 70%, P <.0001; y2 = 82%, P <.0001; LYOL = 119%, P =.098). Differences in expenditures between decedents with area incomes over $35,000 compared to under $20,000 attenuate by the LYOL (y3 = 116%, P <.0001; y2 = 107%, P <.0001; LYOL = 96%, P <.0001). Expenditure patterns for women versus men vary by age. Among the younger cohorts (68 to 74 and 75 to 79), expenditures are higher for women in all 3 years before death. This difference attenuates among older cohorts; in the oldest cohort (90+), expenditures for men exceed those for women by 11% in the LYOL (P <.0001). Older beneficiaries have higher expenditures in the second and third years before death but lower expenditures in the LYOL. On average, the youngest cohort expended $8,017 more in the LYOL relative to the oldest cohort, whereas in the third year before death, the oldest cohort's expenditures were $5,270 more than those for the youngest cohort (P <.0001).ConclusionsAge-associated differences in aggregate Medicare payments for end-of-life care are more substantial than other differences. The fact that other differences attenuate in the LYOL may reflect having overcome barriers to health care, or reflect an effective ceiling on the opportunities to provide services for persons with overwhelming illness.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…