What is driving Medicare spending growth? According to a recent health affairs paper by Amitabh Chandra, Maurice A. Dalton, and Jonathan Holme (2013), the answer is post acute care. The authors use Medicare claims (5 percent MedPAR sample) to examine changes in Meidcare spending between 1994 and 2009.
The authors find that post-acute spending has the largest growth rate for heart attacks, congestive heart failure (CHF) and hip fracture.
Source:
- Amitabh Chandra, Maurice A. Dalton, and Jonathan Holme. Large Increases In Spending On Postacute Care In Medicare Point To The Potential For Cost Savings In These Settings. Health Aff May 2013 vol. 32 no. 5 864-872. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1262