Medicare

This issue brief provides updates on state Medicaid policies regarding delivery of telehealth services by provider types and modalities, as of January 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic substantially accelerated interest in and utilization of telehealth across all payers including Medicaid.

This report and dataset inventory identifies federally funded data linkages that may facilitate patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) on economic outcomes for Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries.

This study updates ASPE’s previous analysis of the associations between COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths among Medicare beneficiaries and COVID-19 vaccination rates, with full year data through the end of 2021.

Prescription drug price increases create affordability challenges for patients and for the government. This report tracks drug price changes from 2016-2022. There were 1,216 products whose price increases during the twelve-month period from July 2021 to July 2022 exceeded the inflation rate of 8.5 percent for that time period. The average price increase for these drugs was 31.6 percent.

This project tracked resident and facility factors associated with high risk of live discharges from nursing facilities.

This project tracked resident and facility factors associated with high risk of live discharges from nursing facilities.

People can be discharged from nursing homes for many reasons. Discharges may be a positive outcome and at an individual’s choice. In other cases, discharges may be at the direction of the facility and against the will of the resident. There are strict rules about when involuntary facility-initiated discharges (FIDs) are allowed.

Improving health equity in the United States is a priority for the Biden-Harris Administration in order to address longstanding disparities in health outcomes. Health inequities can be conceptualized and measured as drivers of differences in health outcomes.

Opioid use was very common among the long-term care (LTC) residents in our sample. Perhaps reflecting their post-acute rehabilitative needs, discharged residents were more likely to have opioid use prior to LTC admission and at the beginning of the LTC stay.

The Improving Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014 requires a report to Congress on unified payment for Medicare post-acute care (PAC). Medicare PAC providers are skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, and home health agencies. Each PAC provider setting has a separate Medicare fee-for-service prospective payment system.