Sources of Hospital Variation in Postacute Care Spending After Cardiac Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Postacute care is a major driver of cardiac surgical episode spending, but the sources of variation in spending have not been explored. The objective of this study was to identify sources of variation in postacute care spending within 90-days of discharge following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and aortic valve replacement (AVR) and the relationship between postacute care spending and other postdischarge utilization. METHODS AND RESULTS: A retrospective analysis was conducted of public and private administrative claims for Michigan residents insured by Medicare fee-for-service and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan/Blue Care Network commercial and Medicare Advantage plans undergoing CABG (n=11 208) or AVR (n=6122) in 33 nonfederal acute care Michigan hospitals between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2018. Postacute care use was present in 9662 (86.2%) CABG episodes and 4242 (69.3%) AVR episodes, with respective mean (SD) 90-day spending of $4398±$6124 and $3465±$5759. Across hospitals, mean postacute care spending ranged from $3280 to $8186 for CABG and $2246 to $7710 for AVR. Inpatient rehabilitation and skilled nursing facility care accounted for over 80% of the variation spending between low and high postacute care spending hospitals. At the hospital-level, postacute care spending was modestly correlated across procedures and payers. Spending associated with readmissions, emergency department visits, and outpatient facility care was significantly different between low and high postacute care spending hospitals in CABG and AVR episodes. CONCLUSIONS: There was wide hospital variation in postacute care spending after cardiac surgery, which was primarily driven by differential use and intensity in facility-based postacute care. Optimizing facility-based postacute care after cardiac surgery offers unique opportunities to reduce potentially unwarranted care variation.

Post-discharge acute care and outcomes following readmission reduction initiatives: national retrospective cohort study of Medicare beneficiaries in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether patients discharged after hospital admissions for conditions covered by national readmission programs who received care in emergency departments or observation units but were not readmitted within 30 days had an increased risk of death and to evaluate temporal trends in post-discharge acute care utilization in inpatient units, emergency departments, and observation units for these patients. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Medicare claims data for 2008-16 in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Patients aged 65 or older admitted to hospital with heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, or pneumonia-conditions included in the US Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Post-discharge 30 day mortality according to patients' 30 day acute care utilization; acute care utilization in inpatient and observation units and the emergency department during the 30 day and 31-90 day post-discharge period. RESULTS: 3 772 924 hospital admissions for heart failure, 1 570 113 for acute myocardial infarction, and 3 131 162 for pneumonia occurred. The overall post-discharge 30 day mortality was 8.7% for heart failure, 7.3% for acute myocardial infarction, and 8.4% for pneumonia. Risk adjusted mortality increased annually by 0.05% (95% confidence interval 0.02% to 0.08%) for heart failure, decreased by 0.06% (-0.09% to -0.04%) for acute myocardial infarction, and did not significantly change for pneumonia. Specifically, mortality increased for patients with heart failure who did not utilize any post-discharge acute care, increasing at a rate of 0.08% (0.05% to 0.12%) per year, exceeding the overall absolute annual increase in post-discharge mortality in heart failure, without an increase in mortality in observation units or the emergency department. Concurrent with a reduction in 30 day readmission rates, stays for observation and visits to the emergency department increased across all three conditions during and beyond the 30 day post-discharge period. Overall 30 day post-acute care utilization did not change significantly. CONCLUSIONS: The only condition with increasing mortality through the study period was heart failure; the increase preceded the policy and was not present among patients who received emergency department or observation unit care without admission to hospital. During this period, the overall acute care utilization in the 30 days after discharge significantly decreased for heart failure and pneumonia, but not for acute myocardial infarction.

Predicting outcomes within an innovative post-acute rehabilitation model for older adults.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the provision of health services to community-dwelling older adults is of great importance due to regulatory changes within post-acute care. The aim of this study was to illustrate pathways by which older adults, within an innovative post-acute care delivery model, move to either independence or re-admission back into higher levels of care to maximize the value of rehabilitation delivery. METHODS: Clinical data specific to an episode of care (n = 30,001) provided to Medicare beneficiaries treated via a rehabilitation house-calls model of care in their homes and senior living communites were separated into training and test sets. Classification trees were fit on the training set's administrative and clinical variables. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the overall sample, patient characteristics, clinical characteristics, and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: Subjects were 83.3 years on average, 69.4% were female, and 62.2% were seen in their own homes while 37.8% were in senior living. The key variables predictive of progressing to independence were total number of visits, the presence of the Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), PSFS score at discharge and change in PSFS. Prediction accuracy of the classification tree on the test set was 82.4%. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults progress to a higher degree of independence, instead of higher levels of care, via several distinct pathways within a rehabilitation house-calls model of care. A mix of service utilization and outcome variables are key predictors of each pathway and may be used to maximize the value of service delivery. Further examination of the predictors of outcome using administrative datasets drawn from different sub-sets of older adults across the post-acute care continuum is warranted.

Changes in Use of Postacute Care Associated With Accountable Care Organizations in Hip Fracture, Stroke, and Pneumonia Hospitalized Cohorts.

OBJECTIVE: To examine changes in more and less discretionary condition-specific postacute care use (skilled nursing, inpatient rehabilitation, home health) associated with Medicare accountable care organization (ACO) implementation. DATA SOURCES: 2009-2014 Medicare fee-for-service claims. STUDY DESIGN: Difference-in-difference methodology comparing postacute outcomes after hospitalization for hip fracture and stroke (where rehabilitation is fundamental to the episode of care) to pneumonia, (where it is more discretionary) for beneficiaries attributed to ACO and non-ACO providers. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Across all 3 cohorts, in the baseline period ACO patients were more likely to receive Medicare-paid postacute care and had higher episode spending. In hip fracture patients where rehabilitation is standard of care, ACO implementation was associated with 6%-8% increases in probability of admission to a skilled nursing facility or inpatient rehabilitation (compared with home without care), and a slight reduction in readmissions. In a clinical condition where rehabilitation is more discretionary, pneumonia, ACO implementation was not associated with changes in postacute location, but episodic spending decreased 2%-3%. Spending decreases were concentrated in the least complex patients. Across all cohorts, the length of stay in skilled nursing facilities decreased with ACO implementation. CONCLUSIONS: ACOs decreased spending on postacute care by decreasing use of discretionary services. ACO implementation was associated with reduced length of stay in skilled nursing facilities, while hip fracture patients used institutional postacute settings at higher rates. Among pneumonia patients, we observed decreases in spending, readmission days, and mortality associated with ACO implementation.

Physiatry as a Leader for Postacute Care in Integrated Healthcare Systems.

Because health care is being moved to a higher level of accountability, there has been a focus on improving outcomes through improving postacute care. The issues of cost and readmissions to acute care settings are very important, but the focus on patient function has not been foremost. Because of the fact that most postacute care needs are based on functional limitations and that physiatrists are well versed in transitions of care, rehabilitation of patients back to community settings, team building, and leadership, it is appropriate for rehabilitation medicine to take a leadership role in the planning and development of postacute care services in the new integrated healthcare systems that are becoming prevalent in healthcare. This review discusses some of the issues in postacute care, the growth of the integrated health system model, and how there are opportunities and challenges for physiatric leadership to help develop these new models of care.

Trends in Postacute Care Spending Growth During the Medicare Spending Slowdown.

Issue: Over the past decade, traditional Medicare's per-beneficiary spending grew at historically low levels. To understand this phenomenon, it is important to examine trends in postacute care, which experienced exceptionally high spending growth in prior decades. Goal: Describe per-beneficiary spending trends between 2007 and 2015 for postacute care services among traditional Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. Methods: Trend analysis of individual-level Medicare administrative data to generate per-beneficiary spending and utilization estimates for postacute care, including skilled nursing facilities, home health, and inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Key Findings and Conclusions: Per-beneficiary postacute care spending increased from $1,248 to $1,424 from 2007 to 2015. This modest increase reflects dramatic changes in annual spending and utilization growth rates, including a reversal from positive to negative spending growth rates for the skilled nursing facility and home health sectors. For example, the average annual spending growth rate for skilled nursing facility services declined from 7.4 percent over the 2008­11 period to ­2.8 percent over the 2012­15 period. Among beneficiaries with inpatient use, growth rates for postacute care spending and utilization slowed, but more moderately than observed among all beneficiaries. Reductions in hospital use, as well as reduced payment rates, contributed to declines in postacute spending.

Do Changes in Post-acute Care Use at Hospitals Participating in an Accountable Care Organization Spillover to All Medicare Beneficiaries?

BACKGROUND: While early evidence suggests that Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) may reduce post-acute care (PAC) utilization for attributed beneficiaries, whether these effects spill over to all beneficiaries admitted to hospitals participating in ACOs stray is unknown. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether changes in PAC use and Medicare spending spill over to all beneficiaries admitted to hospitals participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). DESIGN: Observational study using a difference-in-differences design comparing changes in PAC utilization and spending among beneficiaries admitted to ACO-participating hospitals before and after the start of the ACO contracts, compared to those admitted to non-ACO hospitals. SETTING: A total of 233 hospitals participate in MSSP ACOs and 3103 non-ACO hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: A national sample of 11,683,573 Medicare beneficiaries experiencing 26,503,086 hospital admissions from 2010 to 2013. EXPOSURE: Admission to a hospital participating in an MSSP ACO. MAIN MEASURES: The probability of discharge and Medicare payments to inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF), skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and home health agencies (HHA). KEY RESULTS: For beneficiaries admitted to hospitals that joined an ACO, the likelihood of being discharged to PAC did not change after the hospital joined the ACO compared with non-ACO hospitals over the same period (differential change in probability of discharge to any PAC was 0.000 (P = 0.89), SNF was 0.000 (P = 0.73), IRF was 0.000 (P = 0.96), and HHA was 0.001 (P = 0.57)). Payments reduced significantly for PAC overall (- $130.41, P = 0.03), but not for any individual PAC type alone. These results were consistent in samples that were conditional on discharge to any PAC, across conditions with high PAC use nationally, and among ACO-participating hospitals that also had a PAC participant. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital participation in an ACO did not result in spillovers in PAC utilization or payments to all beneficiaries, even when considering high PAC-use conditions and ACO hospitals that also have an ACO-participating PAC.

Untapped Potential: Using the HRS-Medicare-Linked Files to Study the Changing Nursing Home Population.

BACKGROUND: Nursing home (NH) care in the United States now includes many short-term admissions to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for postacute care. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the potential of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) linked to administrative data to study this group. RESEARCH DESIGN: Descriptive retrospective panel study. SUBJECTS: HRS respondents between 2002 and 2010 linked to administrative data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). MEASURES: NH use was defined in 3 ways: by survey responses, Medicare SNF claims, and mandatory NH assessments. RESULTS: In total, 8.5% of observation periods (ie, time between 2 consecutive survey dates or 2 years before initial survey) reported by the survey and 26.0% reported by administrative data indicated some NH use. There was 98% agreement between survey responses and administrative data when there was no indication of a NH observation in the administrative data. However, there was only 33% agreement between survey responses and administrative data when a NH stay was indicated in the administrative data. NH stays associated with SNF care were responsible for the discrepancy-they were not consistently captured by the HRS survey. Rates of agreement were highest when a proxy respondent was used, and lowest among respondents who rated themselves in excellent overall health. Rates of agreement were higher later in the decade than earlier. CONCLUSIONS: The HRS-Medicare-linked files enhance the ability of the HRS to examine the growing use of NH for postacute care as well as offer a more comprehensive view of who uses NHs.

Postacute Care and Recovery After Cancer Surgery: Still a Long Way to Go.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether postacute care (PAC) facilities can compensate for increased mortality stemming from a complicated postoperative recovery (complications or deconditioning). BACKGROUND: An increasing number of patients having cancer surgery rely on PAC facilities including skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers to help them recover from postoperative complications and the physical demands of surgery. It is currently unclear whether PAC can successfully compensate for the adverse consequences of a complicated postoperative recovery. METHODS: We combined data from the Veterans Affairs Cancer Registry with the Surgical Quality Improvement Program to identify veterans having surgery for stage I-III colorectal cancer from 1999 to 2010. We used propensity matching to control for comorbidity, functional status, postoperative complications, and stage. RESULTS: We evaluated 10,583 veterans having colorectal cancer surgery, and 765 veterans (7%) were discharged to PAC facilities whereas 9818 veterans (93%) were discharged home. Five-year overall survival after discharge to PAC facilities was 36% compared with 51% after discharge home. Stage I patients discharged to PAC facilities had similar survival (45%) as stage III patients who were discharged home (44%). Patients discharged to PAC facilities had worse survival in the first year after surgery (hazard ratio 2.0, 95% confidence interval 1.7-2.4) and after the first year (hazard ratio 1.4, 95% confidence interval 1.2-1.5). CONCLUSIONS: Discharge to PAC facilities after cancer surgery is not sufficient to overcome the adverse survival effects of a complicated postoperative recovery. Improvement of perioperative care outside the acute hospital setting and development of better postoperative recovery programs for cancer patients are needed to enhance survival after surgery.

Motor and Cognitive Functional Status Are Associated with 30-day Unplanned Rehospitalization Following Post-Acute Care in Medicare Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries.

BACKGROUND: The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014 stipulates that standardized functional status (self-care and mobility) and cognitive function data will be used for quality reporting in post-acute care settings. Thirty-day post-discharge unplanned rehospitalization is an established quality metric that has recently been extended to post-acute settings. The relationships between the functional domains in the IMPACT Act and 30-day unplanned rehospitalization are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To determine the degree to which discharge mobility, self-care, and cognitive function are associated with 30-day unplanned rehospitalization following discharge from post-acute care. DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Inpatient rehabilitation facilities submitting claims and assessment data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2012-2013. PARTICIPANTS: Medicare fee-for-service enrollees discharged from post-acute rehabilitation in 2012-2013. The sample included community-dwelling adults admitted for rehabilitation following an acute care stay who survived for 32 days following discharge (N = 252,406). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN MEASURES: Thirty-day unplanned rehospitalization following post-acute rehabilitation. KEY RESULTS: The unadjusted 30-day unplanned rehospitalization rate was 12.0 % (n = 30,179). Overall, patients dependent at discharge for mobility had a 50 % increased odds of rehospitalization (OR = 1.50, 95 % CI: 1.42-1.59), patients dependent for self-care a 36 % increased odds (OR = 1.36, 95 % CI: 1.27-1.47), and patients dependent for cognition a 19 % increased odds (OR = 1.19, 95 % CI: 1.09-1.29). Patients dependent for both self-care and mobility at discharge (n = 8312, 3.3 %) had a 16.1 % (95 % CI: 15.3-17.0 %) adjusted rehospitalization rate versus 8.5 % (95 % CI: 8.3-8.8 %) for those independent for both (n = 74,641; 29.6 %). CONCLUSIONS: The functional domains identified in the IMPACT Act were associated with 30-day unplanned rehospitalization following post-acute care in this large national sample. Further research is needed to better understand and improve the functional measures, and to determine if their association with rehospitalizations varies across post-acute settings, patient populations, or episodes of care.

Pending laboratory tests and the hospital discharge summary in patients discharged to sub-acute care.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have noted a high (41%) prevalence and poor discharge summary communication of pending laboratory (lab) tests at the time of hospital discharge for general medical patients. However, the prevalence and communication of pending labs within a high-risk population, specifically those patients discharged to sub-acute care (i.e., skilled nursing, rehabilitation, long-term care), remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and nature of lab tests pending at hospital discharge and their inclusion within hospital discharge summaries, for common sub-acute care populations. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Stroke, hip fracture, and cancer patients discharged from a single large academic medical center to sub-acute care, 2003-2005 (N = 564) MAIN MEASURES: Pending lab tests were abstracted from the laboratory information system (LIS) and from each patient's discharge summary, then grouped into 14 categories and compared. Microbiology tests were sub-divided by culture type and number of days pending prior to discharge. KEY RESULTS: Of sub-acute care patients, 32% (181/564) were discharged with pending lab tests per the LIS; however, only 11% (20/181) of discharge summaries documented these. Patients most often left the hospital with pending microbiology tests (83% [150/181]), particularly blood and urine cultures, and reference lab tests (17% [30/181]). However, 82% (61/74) of patients' pending urine cultures did not have 24-hour preliminary results, and 19% (13/70) of patients' pending blood cultures did not have 48-hour preliminary results available at the time of hospital discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately one-third of the sub-acute care patients in this study had labs pending at discharge, but few were documented within hospital discharge summaries. Even after considering the availability of preliminary microbiology results, these omissions remain common. Future studies should focus on improving the communication of pending lab tests at discharge and evaluating the impact that this improved communication has on patient outcomes.

Growth and payment adequacy of medicare postacute care rehabilitation.

In the early 1990s, Medicare experienced rapid growth in the number of providers furnishing postacute care (PAC). Spending grew at an even faster pace than the supply of providers. By the late 1990s, the U.S. Congress required the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (formerly the Health Care Financing Administration) to design and implement prospective payment systems (PPSs) for the 4 PAC settings. Congress intended that the new payment systems moderate growth in spending for PAC. Instead, prospective payment generally has accelerated growth in spending and generated high profits among providers. This article presents growth trends in providers and Medicare spending. It discusses the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) assessment of payment adequacy for 2006 and 2007 for the 4 postacute sectors and problems with the PPSs that result in misaligned payments and costs. This article also reviews MedPAC's studies to compare patient-assessment instruments for 3 of the 4 settings and to compare outcomes across settings for joint-replacement patients.

Postacute rehabilitation research and policy recommendations.

This article summarizes the research and health policy recommendations developed by participants at the symposium "State-of-the-Science on Post-Acute Rehabilitation: Setting a Research Agenda and Developing an Evidence Base for Practice and Public Policy," held in February 2007. A diverse group of participants represented federal government agencies, private insurers, professional organizations, providers of rehabilitation services, patients and their advocates, and health researchers. During roundtable discussions and theme-specific break-out sessions, participants were asked to consider 5 major topics regarding postacute rehabilitation care: (1) the extent of our knowledge, (2) the limitations of our knowledge, (3) the barriers that limit research, (4) research priorities to reduce these obstacles and assemble needed evidence, and (5) the major policy implications. Several key themes emerged: the need for improved measures, particularly of case-mix factors and treatment ingredients; the need for a more uniform and coherent system of postacute rehabilitation care to facilitate gathering of common data; the need to attend to underutilization as well as overutilization of rehabilitation services; the need for cooperation among payers, providers, and researchers to advance a rehabilitation effectiveness research agenda; and the desire to develop payment policies that are based on research evidence.

Reforming Medicare payment: early effects of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act on postacute care.

The 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA) reformed payment for Medicare postacute services. This article examines postacute care use just before and immediately after implementation of the BBA for hospital discharges for five diagnosis-related groups that commonly use postacute care. Changes in treatment patterns were more beneficiaries receiving no postacute care, much less use of home health services both initially and after initial institutional postacute care, and slightly more use of rehabilitation and long-term care hospitals. But no consistent increases in adverse outcomes were observed using logistic regression models. These results demonstrate that financing changes can affect use patterns, that less use does not automatically imply poorer quality, and that the interrelationship of services should be considered when designing reimbursement methodologies.