• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Mismanaging chronic illness: a major Medicare problem

Case Management Weekly, May 24, 2006

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Case Management Weekly!

A new study by researchers at Dartmouth Medical School finds that almost one-third of Medicare spending for chronically ill patients is unnecessary, and that a staggering variation in spending and resources are used to manage this population.

According to the report, Medicare could have saved $40 billion dollars over the past four years if all U.S. hospitals practiced according to specific standards identified in the study. The report also challenges the common notion that using every available resource, such as specialists, hospital and ICU beds, diagnostic tests, and imaging, produce better outcomes for chronically ill elderly patients.

The data studied 4.7 million Medicare enrollees who died during 2000-2003 and had at least one chronic illness. Results showed that 13.6 more ICU beds were used in 2003 than in 2000, and that the average number of hospitalized days during the last six months of a life varied drastically among medical centers. For example, St Mary's Hospital in Rochester, MN, averaged 12.9 days versus New York-Presbyterian Hospital, in New York, with an average of 23.9 days.

Researchers of the study recommend redirecting resources away from acute care facilities and investing in care outside of hospitals such as home health and hospice.

Source:The Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Case Management Weekly!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive