Dataset Information

Patient Outcomes After Hospital Discharge to Home With Home Health Care vs to a Skilled Nursing Facility.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Use of postacute care is common and costly in the United States, but there is significant uncertainty about whether the choice of postacute care setting matters. Understanding these tradeoffs is particularly important as new alternative payment models push patients toward lower-cost settings for care.

Objective

To investigate the association of patient outcomes and Medicare costs of discharge to home with home health care vs discharge to a skilled nursing facility.

Design, setting, and participants

A retrospective cohort study used Medicare claims data from short-term acute-care hospitals in the United States and skilled nursing facility and home health assessment data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2016, on Medicare beneficiaries who were discharged from the hospital to home with home health care or to a skilled nursing facility. To address the endogeneity of treatment choice, an instrumental variables approach used the differential distance between the beneficiary's home zip code and the closest home health agency and the closest skilled nursing facility as an instrument.

Exposures

Receipt of postacute care at home vs in a skilled nursing facility.

Main outcomes and measures

Readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge, death within 30 days of hospital discharge, improvement in functional status during the postacute care episode, and Medicare payment for postacute care and total payment for the 60-day episode.

Results

A total of 17 235 854 hospitalizations (62.2% women and 37.8% men; mean [SD] age, 80.5 [7.9] years) were discharged either to home with home health care (38.8%) or to a skilled nursing facility (61.2%) during the study period. Discharge to home was associated with a 5.6-percentage point higher rate of readmission at 30 days compared with discharge to a skilled nursing facility (95% CI, 0.8-10.3; P = .02). There were no significant differences in 30-day mortality rates (-2.0 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.8-10.3; P = .12) or improved functional status (-1.9 percentage points; 95% CI, -12.0 to 8.2; P = .71). Medicare payment for postacute care was significantly lower for those discharged to home compared with those discharged to a skilled nursing facility (-$5384; 95% CI, -$6932 to -$3837; P < .001), as was total Medicare payment within the first 60 days after admission (-$4514; 95% CI, -$6932 to -$3837; P < .001).

Conclusions and relevance

Among Medicare beneficiaries eligible for postacute care at home or in a skilled nursing facility, discharge to home with home health care was associated with higher rates of readmission, no detectable differences in mortality or functional outcomes, and lower Medicare payments.

SUBMITTER: Werner RM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6503560 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:Approximately half of individuals newly admitted to long-term care (LTC) nursing homes (NHs) experienced a prior hospitalization followed by discharge to a skilled nursing facility (SNF). The objective was to examine characteristics associated with new institutionalizations of older adults on this care trajectory. DESIGN:Retrospective cohort study. SETTING:SNFs and LTC NHs. PATIENTS:Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries admitted to 7,442 SNFs in 2013 (N = 597,986). MEASUREMENTS:We used demographic and clinical characteristics from Medicare data and the Minimum Data Set. We defined "new institutionalization" as LTC NH residence for longer than 90 non-SNF days, starting within 6 months of hospital discharge. RESULTS:For individuals who survived 6 months after hospital discharge, the overall rate of new LTC institutionalizations was 10.0% (N = 59,736). Older age, white race, being unmarried, Medicaid eligibility, higher income, more comorbidities, cognitive impairment, depression, functional limitations, hallucinations and delusions, aggressive behavior, incontinence, and pressure ulcers were associated with higher adjusted odds of new LTC institutionalization. In analyses stratified according to race and ethnicity, higher income was associated with lower odds of LTC institutionalization for whites (odds ratio (OR) = 0.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.89-0.96) and greater odds for blacks (OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.27-1.55) and Hispanics (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.25-1.66). Moderate or severe depression, functional limitations, hallucinations and delusions, aggressive behavior, and being unmarried were stronger risk factors for LTC for cognitively intact individuals than for those with moderate to severe cognitive impairment. Being unmarried and having more comorbidities were stronger predictors in those aged 66 to 70 than in those aged 81 to 85 and 91 and older. CONCLUSION:Associations between risk factors and new LTC institutionalizations varied according to race and ethnicity, age, and level of cognitive function. Programs that target older adults at greater risk may be an effective strategy for reducing new institutionalizations and fostering aging in place.

Project description:Importance:Despite providing an overlapping level of care, it is unknown why hospitalized older adults are transferred to long-term acute care hospitals (LTACs) vs less costly skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for postacute care. Objective:To examine factors associated with variation in LTAC vs SNF transfer among hospitalized older adults. Design, Setting, and Participants:We conducted this retrospective observational cohort study of hospitalized older adults (≥65 years) transferred to an LTAC vs SNF during fiscal year 2012 using national 5% Medicare data. Main Outcomes and Measures:Predictors of LTAC transfer were assessed using a multilevel mixed-effects model adjusting for patient-, hospital-, and region-level factors. We estimated variation partition coefficients and adjusted hospital- and region-specific LTAC transfer rates using sequential models. Results:Among 65 525 hospitalized older adults (42 461 [64.8%] women; 39 908 [60.9%] ≥85 years) transferred to an LTAC or SNF, 3093 (4.7%) were transferred to an LTAC. We identified 29 patient-, 3 hospital-, and 5 region-level independent predictors. The strongest predictors of LTAC transfer were receiving a tracheostomy (adjusted odds ration [aOR], 23.8; 95% CI, 15.8-35.9) and being hospitalized in close proximity to an LTAC (0-2 vs >42 miles; aOR, 8.4, 95% CI, 6.1-11.5). After adjusting for case-mix, differences between patients explained 52.1% (95% CI, 47.7%-56.5%) of the variation in LTAC use. The remainder was attributable to hospital (15.0%; 95% CI, 12.3%-17.6%), and regional differences (32.9%; 95% CI, 27.6%-38.3%). Case-mix adjusted LTAC use was very high in the South (17%-37%) compared with the Pacific Northwest, North, and Northeast (<2.2%). From the full multilevel model, the median adjusted hospital LTAC transfer rate was 2.1% (10th-90th percentile, 0.24%-10.8%). Even within a region, adjusted hospital LTAC transfer rates varied substantially (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC], 0.26; 95% CI, 0.23-0.30). Conclusions and Relevance:Although many patient-level factors were associated with LTAC use, half of the variation in LTAC vs SNF transfer is independent of patients' illness severity or clinical complexity, and is explained by where the patient was hospitalized and in what region, with far greater use in the South. Even among hospitals in regions with similar LTAC access, there was considerable variation in LTAC use. Given the higher expense associated with LTACs vs SNFs, greater attention is needed to define the optimal role of LTACs in the postacute care of older adults.

Project description:BackgroundLong-term acute care hospital (LTACH) use varies considerably across the U.S., which may reflect uncertainty about the effectiveness of LTACHs vs. skilled nursing facilities (SNF), the principal post-acute care alternative. Given that LTACHs provide more intensive care and thus receive over triple the reimbursement of SNFs for comparable diagnoses, we sought to compare outcomes and spending between LTACH versus SNF transfer.MethodsUsing Medicare claims linked to electronic health record (EHR) data from six Texas Hospitals between 2009 and 2010, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients hospitalized on a medicine service in a high-LTACH use region and discharged to either an LTACH or SNF and followed for one year. The primary outcomes included mortality, 60-day recovery without inpatient care, days at home, and healthcare spending RESULTS: Of 3503 patients, 18% were transferred to an LTACH. Patients transferred to LTACHs were younger (median 71 vs. 82 years), less likely to be female (50.5 vs 66.6%) and white (69.0 vs. 84.1%), but were sicker (24.3 vs. 14.2% for prolonged intensive care unit stay; median diagnosis resource intensity weight of 2.03 vs. 1.38). In unadjusted analyses, patients transferred to an LTACH vs. SNF were less likely to survive (59.1 vs. 65.0%) or recover (62.5 vs 66.0%), and spent fewer days at home (186 vs. 200). Adjusting for demographic and clinical confounders available in Medicare claims and EHR data, LTACH transfer was not significantly associated with differences in mortality (HR, 1.12, 95% CI, 0.94-1.33), recovery (SHR, 1.07, 0.93-1.23), and days spent at home (IRR, 0.96, 0.83-1.10), but was associated with greater Medicare spending ($16,689 for one year, 95% CI, $12,216-$21,162).ConclusionLTACH transfer for Medicare beneficiaries is associated with similar clinical outcomes but with higher healthcare spending compared to SNF transfer. LTACH use should be reserved for patients who require complex inpatient care and cannot be cared for in SNFs.