Post Acute Care Episodes. Endnotes
1 Inpatient acute claims included both prospective payment system (PPS) and critical access hospital (CAH) claims.
Post Acute Care Episodes. 5. References
Commonwealth Fund. A Path to a High Performance U.S. Health System: A 2020 Vision and the Policies to Pave the Way, February 2009. Retrieved July 2009 from http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund Report/2009/Feb/The Path to a High Performance US Health System/1237_Commission_path_high_perform_US_hlt_sys_WEB_rev_03052009.pd
Post Acute Care Episodes. 4.2 Next Steps
Over the next year, ASPE and RTI will continue to work on episodes of care for Medicare beneficiaries. While past research has used only 2006 data, work in the coming year will create a longitudinal file using additional years of Medicare claims data. The data file will have the ability to follow Medicare beneficiaries across time to account for m
Post Acute Care Episodes. 4.1 Conclusions and Implications of the Findings
The analyses presented in this report demonstrate the effects of alternative episode definitions in terms of episode costs and composition. In summary, varying the episode definition affects
Post Acute Care Episodes. 3.1 Geographic Benchmarking Analysis
The results of the geographic benchmarking analysis demonstrate the variation in the percentage of beneficiaries using PAC services in different parts of the country as well as differences in utilization and payments for those who do use PAC. The results of the geographic analysis are presented in Tables 5 and 6. Table 5 presents standardized paym
Post Acute Care Episodes. 3. Results
Table 1 gives an overview of Medicare payments for index acute admissions and PAC episodes per index acute hospital discharge and per PAC user for each of the 18 alternative episode definitions included in our analysis. Mean index acute hospital payments were $8,287 per index acute hospital discharge versus $10,297 per PAC user. Index acute hospit
Post Acute Care Episodes. Geographic Benchmarking Analysis
The goal of the geographic benchmarking analysis is to look at the differences in PAC payments across different levels of geography to learn more about differences in patterns of PAC utilization as they relate to differences in the local availability of providers and practice patterns across the country. Analyses were conducted at national, state,
Post Acute Care Episodes. Alternative Episode Definitions
In this analysis, we explore differences in the composition of PAC episodes using 18 different episode definitions. These episode definitions fall into two broad categories: fixed episodes and variable length episodes. Fixed episodes are calculated based on claims that occur within fixed windows of time following index acute hospital discharge. Ou
Post Acute Care Episodes. Defining the Start of an Episode
The initiating event for a PAC episode in our analysis is an index acute hospital stay in 2006. We define an index acute hospital stay as an acute hospital admission following a 60 day period without the use of acute, LTCH, IRF, SNF, or HHA services. Therefore, although all index acute hospitalizations took place in 2006, we also used data from th
Post Acute Care Episodes. 2.1 Data Source
The primary data source for this study was 2006 Medicare claims data. These data provided information on utilization and Medicare payments associated with acute hospital discharges and subsequent PAC. The 2006 Medicare claims files were used to track patterns of PAC use, including PAC service mix, length of stay, payment, and acute hospital readmi
Post Acute Care Episodes. 1. Background
In 2008, the Medicare program spent $49.9 billion on post-acute care (PAC) services including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), home health agencies (HHAs), inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and long-term care acute hospitals (LTCHs) (Medicare Payment Advisory Committee [MedPAC], 2009). This represents an increase of 8 percent over 2007
Post Acute Care Episodes
Final Report
Prepared for
Susan Bogasky
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Room 443F5 200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20201
Prepared by
report.pdf
PDF Exploring Episode-Based Approaches for Medicare Performance Measurement, Accountability and Payment Final Report. Footnotes
1 Public Law 109-171, February 8, 2006
2 Public Law 110-275, July 15, 2008
3 Medicare severity diagnostic related groups
4 Prospective payment system
5 Relative value unit
6 Ambulatory payment classification
7 Electroconvulsive therapy
8 Healthcare common procedures coding system
9 Disproportionate share
10 Gr
Exploring Episode-Based Approaches for Medicare Performance Measurement, Accountability and Payment Final Report. References
Abt Associates Inc. (1997). Medicare Cataract Surgery Alternate Payment Demonstration: Final Evaluation Report . Cambridge, M.A.
American Geriatrics Society (AGS) (2007). "Improving the Quality of Transitional Care for Persons with Complex Care Needs: American Geriatrics Society Position Statement." Assited Living Consult March/April: 30-32.
Exploring Episode-Based Approaches for Medicare Performance Measurement, Accountability and Payment Final Report. Appendix F. Defining Professional Costs and Evaluation and Management (E&M) Visits
Defining Professional Claims for the Purposes of Attribution
Under a narrow definition professional services are care directly rendered by a physician or related provider. This definition therefore excludes pharmacy, facility, and direct medical equipment. Broader definitions might include these services.
Exploring Episode-Based Approaches for Medicare Performance Measurement, Accountability and Payment Final Report. Appendix E. Settings Involved in Episodes, by Condition and Measures Reported to Medicare Reporting Programs
(as of 12/08/2008, includes measures for 2009 reporting)
Figure E1. Settings Involved in Episodes: AMI (MEGS)
Exploring Episode-Based Approaches for Medicare Performance Measurement, Accountability and Payment Final Report. Appendix D. Standardized Payment Methodology
Average payments were standardized for each setting based on 2005 payment rates and payment policy to exclude variation in resource use due to geographic factors (i.e., area wages, geographic differences in medical liability costs, and urban/rural status) and policy considerations (i.e., indirect medical education (IME), and disproportionate share
