Summary

Description

Descriptive analyses reported in Medicares Hospice Benefit - Analysis of Utilization and Resource Use, published in Volume 4, Issue 3 of the Medicare and Medicaid Research Review, explore the magnitude of relative resource use during hospice episodes and whether patterns of service use vary by episode length for patients who only use routine home care, compared to patients who use multiple levels of care. The results indicate service use is more intensive during the initial days of the episode and for the last few days prior to death, relative to the middle days of care, except for relatively short episodes where use is quite intensive throughout the stay. Using enhanced data on the intensity of service use, the results confirm previous research that suggested a similar pattern to service use during a hospice episode. Thus, the results provide useful information for potential discussions on hospice payment reform.