Hospice proves less costly to Medicare

According to a new research study published in the March issue of Health Affairs, hospice enrollment saves money for Medicare and improves care quality for Medicare beneficiaries with a number of different lengths of services.

Led by Amy S. Kelley, MD, from the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, researchers looked at the most common hospice enrollment periods: one to seven days, eight to 14 days, 15 to 30 days and 53 to 105 days.

[Also: Financial risk impacts use of hospice care in the U.S.]

"While research from past studies has demonstrated that hospice consistently provides high quality care and has good outcomes for patients and their families, there's been continued debate whether or not the finances add up," Kelley said.

Within all enrollment periods studied, hospice patients had significantly lower rates of hospital and intensive care use, hospital readmissions and in-hospital death when compared to the matched non-hospice patients. The study also revealed that savings to Medicare are present for both cancer patients and non-cancer patients. Moreover, these savings appear to grow as the period of hospice enrollment lengthens with the observed study period of one to 105 days.

"If we were to extrapolate our findings based on the overall population, my rough estimate is that 500,000 Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in hospice for eight to 30 days prior to their death, that probably amounts to $3 billion in savings," said Kelley.

[Also: Concerns raised about increase in for-profit hospice care]

"I really think that the bottom line here is that when we are able to give good high-quality care to patients, which is the care they need in their homes, they don't need to access the acute care system," Kelley said.

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) reports that more than 44 percent of dying Americans were cared for by hospice in 2011. Among these patients, 84 percent of hospice care was paid for through the Medicare hospice benefit.

"The issues of the federal budget aside, it's striking to me – and this study reinforces – that we can do a better job at managing costs along with managing appropriate care for individuals who are facing terminal illness," said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of.NHPCO