Hospice News July 22, 2024
Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries are less likely to receive intensive treatments or burdensome transfers during the last six months of life compared to those in traditional Medicare, a new study has found.
MA enrollees were also more likely to receive hospice care and less likely to receive facility-based care after a hospital discharge, according research published in JAMA Health Forum.
A key factor is MA’s focus on controlling costs, whereas fee-for-service Medicare incentivizes more aggressive treatment, researchers indicated. However, they identified gaps in which patients don’t always receive sufficient post-acute care.
“We found that MA enrollment was associated with lower rates of potentially burdensome hospitalizations and treatments, less skilled nursing facility care and more home care after discharge,” study authors...
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