Study Findings on Medicare and Medicaid Are Outlined in Reports from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (Assessment of Home-Time After Acute Ischemic…

Study Findings on Medicare and Medicaid Are Outlined in Reports from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (Assessment of Home-Time After Acute Ischemic Stroke in Medicare Beneficiaries)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Investigators publish new report on Medicare and Medicaid. According to news reporting out of Winston Salem, North Carolina, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "Stroke survivors have identified home-time as a meaningful outcome. We evaluated home-time as a patient-centered outcome in Medicare beneficiaries with ischemic stroke in comparison with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 90 days and at 1 year post event."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, "Patients enrolled in Get With The Guidelines-Stroke (GWTG-Stroke) and Adherence Evaluation After Ischemic Stroke-Longitudinal (AVAIL) registries were linked to Medicare claims to ascertain home-time, defined as time spent alive and out of a hospital, inpatient rehabilitation, or skilled nursing facilities, at 90 days and at 1 year after admission. The correlation of home-time with mRS at 90 days and at 1 year was evaluated by Pearson correlation coefficients, and the ability of home-time to discriminate mRS (0-2) was assessed by c-index. There were 815 patients with ischemic stroke (age median, 76 years [interquartile range {IQR}, 70-82]; 46% women; National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale median, 4 [IQR, 2-7]) from 88 hospitals. The 90-day and 1-year median home-times were 79 (IQR, 52-86) days and 349 (IQR, 303-360) days and median mRS were 2 (IQR, 1-4) and 2 (IQR, 1-4). Greater home-time within 90 days was significantly correlated with lower 90-day mRS (Pearson correlation coefficient, -0.731; P< 0.0001) and showed strong ability to discriminate functional independence with mRS 0 to 2 (c-index, 0.837). Similar findings were observed at 1 year. In a population of older patients with ischemic stroke, home-time was readily available from administrative data and associated with mRS at 90 days and 1 year."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Home-time represents a novel, easily measured, patient-centered, outcome measure for an episode of stroke care."

For more information on this research see: Assessment of Home-Time After Acute Ischemic Stroke in Medicare Beneficiaries. Stroke, 2016;47(3):836-842. Stroke can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Stroke - stroke.ahajournals.org/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting G.C. Fonarow, Wake Forest Baptist Med Center, Dept. of Neurol, Winston Salem, NC, United States. Additional authors for this research include L. Liang, L. Thomas, Y. Xian, J.L. Saver, E.E. Smith, L.H. Schwamm, E.D. Peterson, A.F. Hernandez, P.W. Duncan, E.C. O'Brien, C. Bushnell and J.P. Bettger.

Keywords for this news article include: Winston Salem, United States, Health Policy, North Carolina, Medicare and Medicaid, North and Central America,

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