Post-Acute Care Episodes Expanded Analytic File

This study provides an opportunity to explore additional research questions as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to consider alternatives to the prospective payment silos in post-acute care (PAC).

This project expands ASPE's Medicare post-acute care (PAC) episode analytic file in terms of sample size and the number of years used (2006-2008) to provide more detailed characteristics of PAC episodes under different definitions. This analysis provides information on changes in PAC use, allows for more detailed understanding of the patterns of PAC use by geography, and provides a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. In addition, this work uses acute Medicare hospital and community entrant initiated episode definitions.