Hospice home care cost savings to third-party insurers.
A population-based, retrospective analysis of Medicare Part A and Blue Cross hospital insurance claims data was used to determine whether hospice home care cost savings to third-party insurers are substantial and result from the substitution of less expensive home care visits for more costly hospital inpatient days. The study was carried out by comparing the third-party payments of Cuyahoga County residents who died of cancer and were served by a hospice home care program (n = 152) with the insurance payments of cancer patients who never received hospice home care (n = 1,397). The data strongly supported the research hypothesis. The relative use of hospital days decreased more than 50% and the use of home care visits increased 10-fold when dying patients shifted from conventional care to hospice home care. This change in use represented a relative savings of about 40%, ranging from $1,089 per patient during the last 2 weeks of life to $2,676 per patient during the last 12 weeks of life. These results were not accounted for by group differences in age, type of cancer, or personal preference for home care.
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D054598:Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans / Q000191:economics; D003363:Cost Control; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006738:Hospices / Q000191:economics*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement / Q000191:economics*; D007350:Insurance, Hospitalization / Q000191:economics; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics; D009820:Ohio; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors