Studies from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Have Provided New Information about Insurance (Geographicvariation In Medicare Home Health Expenditures): Insurance

Health Policy and Law Daily

2022 AUG 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Current study results on Insurance have been published. According to news reporting originating from Little Rock, Arkansas, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To quantify geographic variation in home health expenditures per Medicare home health beneficiary and investigate factors associated with this variation. Retrospective study design analyzing US counties in which at least 1 home health agency served 11 or more beneficiaries in 2016.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, “Several sources of 2016 national public data were used. The key variable is county-level Medicare home health expenditures per home health beneficiary. Counties were grouped into quintiles based on per-beneficiary expenditures. Analyses included calculation of coefficients of variation, computation of the ratio of 90th percentile to 10th percentile in expenditures, and linear regression predicting expenditure. The control variables included characteristics of patients, agencies, and communities. Significant variation in home health expenditures was identified across county quintiles, with a 90th-to-10th-percentile expenditure ratio of 2.5. The percentage of for-profit agencies in the lowest quintile was 15.7 compared with 81.7 in the highest quintile of spending. Unadjusted spending differed by $3864 (95% CI, $3793-$39361, compared with $3611 (95% CI, $3514-$37081 in the adjusted model, between counties in spending quintiles 1 and 5. Although state fixed effects explained nearly 20% of the variation in home health expenditures, 42% of the variation remained unexplained. Home health care exhibits considerable unwarranted variation in per-patient expenditures across counties, signifying inefficiency and waste.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Given the expected growth in home health demand, strategies to reduce unwarranted geographic variation are needed.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Geographicvariation In Medicare Home Health Expenditures. The American Journal of Managed Care, 2022;28(7):322-328. The American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Robert F. Schuldt, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Public Health, Dept. of Health Policy and Management, Little Rock, AR 72205, United States. Additional authors for this research include Amy L. M. Lallier, Hsueh-Fen Chen and J. Mick Tilford.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.37765/ajmc.2022.89179. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.