Inpatient costs for Medicare patients over the last 6 months of life dropped 23% per death from 2009 to 2013, a study showed.
After adjustment for inflation, the average inpatient cost for patients aged 65 years and older who died was over $17,400 in 2009. By 2013, Medicare spending in the last 6 months of life had dropped to just under $13,400. The trend in spending was similar over the last 3 months of life and over the last month, but the declines – 18% for the last 3 months and 14.5% for the last month – were not as great, reported Dr. Harlan M. Krumholz of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and his associates (JAMA. 2015;314(4):355-365).
The investigators noted that “approximately 60% of spending in the last 6 months of beneficiaries’ lives occurred during their final month.”
The analysis included 60,056,069 individuals aged 65 years or older who were enrolled in a Medicare fee-for-service plan for at least 1 month between 1999 and 2013.
Dr. Krumholz is supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
