Patients with multiple chronic conditions are difficult to treat. As people continue to live longer, the number of chronic conditions they must cope with often increases. A Robert Wood Johnson report on chronic conditions reaches the following conclusions. The number of people with chronic conditions is rapidly rising. Between 2000 and 2030, the number of [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Usual Source of Care Increases Spending
Does having a specialist as your usual source of care (USOC) increase costs? “Among high-cost beneficiaries, the 27.8 percent attributed to a medical specialist as their USOCphysician had U.S.$1,839 greater costs than those attributed to primary care physicians, representing roughly 4 percent of the mean cost of care. Although this may reflect unmeasured patient preferences [...]
Read the rest of this entry »Long-term care hospitals (LTCHs)
Today I review how Medicare pays for long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) based on information from MedPAC’s 2011 Report to Congress. LTCHs furnish care to patients with clinically complex problems—such as multiple acute and chronic conditions—who need hospital-level care for relatively extended periods. These facilities can be freestanding or colocated with other hospitals as hospitals within [...]
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