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In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman and guest co-author Dana Goldman examine hospital productivity gains, and what they may mean for hospitals’ ability to absorb spending reductions.
A new report, The Rising Cost of Living Longer: Analysis of Medicare Spending by Age for Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare, from the Kaiser Family Foundation takes a detailed look at per person Medicare spending by age and by service among the nearly 30 million people covered by traditional Medicare in 2011
This analysis provides a detailed look at per person Medicare spending on the nearly 30 million beneficiaries over age 65 who are enrolled in the traditional Medicare program. Among the key findings of the report is that per person spending rises with age, peaking at age 96. But this rise is not entirely explained by Medicare spending on end of life care, which declines with age. What Medicare spends money on also changes as beneficiaries age. Hospital care is the largest component of Medicare spending throughout the age curve, up to age 100, but there is less spending on physician services and more on home health, skilled nursing and hospice care as beneficiaries age.
This brief examines four safety-net hospitals to learn how they were preparing for the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in order to gain additional insight into the strategies being used and challenges being faced among safety-net hospitals across the country.
This brief provides some background on federal Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) allotments, how DSH payments are affected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the methodology for the DSH reductions across states for FY 2014 and FY 2015 and a look at the implications of the reductions.
The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund discusses the critical role of safety-net hospitals in providing care to vulnerable populations.
The new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) seeks to test new health care payment and service delivery models that can potentially enhance quality of care for beneficiaries while reducing costs.
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