Long Term Trends in Medicare Payments in the Last Year of Life

Title
Long Term Trends in Medicare Payments in the Last Year of Life
Project Officer(s)
Gerald Riley
Start Date
End Date
Award
Intramural
Description
The objective of the study is to update previous research on the cost of Medicare services in the last year of life and identify long term trends. The study is based on the Continuous Medicare History Sample, which contains annual claims and enrollment data for a 30 year period for a five percent sample of Medicare beneficiaries. Analyses are based on aged beneficiaries entitled at any time during the period 1978-2006. Only years spent in Fee-for-Service (FFS) were included in the study. For any given year t, Medicare payments were assigned to decedent or survivor categories. For individuals dying in year t+1, payments in year t were prorated according to the proportion of year t that occurred in the last 12 months of life.
Funding
$0.00
Principal Investigator(s)
Gerald Riley
Project Number
CMS-ORDI-2010-2
Status
An article based on findings from this study has been published. The citation is as follows: Riley GF, Lubitz JD. Long term trends in Medicare payments in the last year of life. HSR: Health Services Research. Vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 565-576. April 2010. Abstract: Objective: To update research on Medicare payments in the last year of life Data Source: Continuous Medicare History Sample, containing annual summaries of claims data on a 5 percent sample from 1978 to 2006. Study Design: Analyses were based on elderly beneficiaries in fee-for-service. For each year, Medicare payments were assigned either to decedents (persons in their last year) or to survivors (all others). Results: The share of Medicare payments going to persons in their last year of life declined slightly from 28.3 percent in 1978 to 25.1 percent in 2006. After adjustment for age, sex, and death rates, there was no significant trend. Conclusions: Despite changes in the delivery of medical care over the last generation, the share of Medicare expenditures going to beneficiaries in their last year has not changed substantially.
Awardee Address

7500 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, MD 21244-1850
United States

Awardee Name
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services