Opportunities to Impact Disability: Trends, Costs, and Evidence-Based Interventions

As healthcare shifts to a focus on social determinants and population health, and older adults increasingly seek to “age in community,” it is vital to understand the functional capabilities and related costs for older adults with disability. This symposium will present data on five major areas related to older adult disability. The 1st presenter will describe recent national disability trends. The 2nd will present Medicare costs by disability, dementia, and community-dwelling status in order to illustrate how these different demographic groups vary in Medicare expenditures over time. This information is critical to policymakers and health systems leaders to plan for these populations. They will then describe a 3rd project, which employs a novel longitudinal modeling approach, Group Based Trajectory Modeling, to identify and describe the distinct trajectories of Emergency Department use after incident disability. This work assesses the heterogeneity in health care use after disability, which may be shaped by available supports. The 4th presentation will describe a combined analysis of the 11 sites that have published data from implementations of the CAPABLE program. This program is a 10 session, home-based interprofessional program that provides an occupational therapist, a nurse, and a handyworker to addresses older adults’ self-identified functional goals by enhancing individual capacity and the home environment. Taken together, these presentations can inform interventions and policies that improve the health and quality of life of older adults with disabilities.

Nursing Facility and Health Care Service Use and Costs Under the CMS Financial Alignment Initiative

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created the Financial Alignment Initiative (FAI) to test the impact of integrated care and financing models for dually eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries. Using Medicare claims, the Minimum Data Set 3.0, and state-provided enrollment files, we evaluated demonstration impacts on long-stay nursing facility (NF) use, other health care service utilization, and costs for the overall eligible population in two FAI demonstration States with managed fee-for-service models, Colorado and Washington. We used quasi-experimental, difference-in-differences regression models for the impact analyses. In Colorado, there was a 7.2 percent decrease (p<0.001) in long-stay NF use, relative to the comparison group. Otherwise, the demonstration showed unfavorable service utilization results—increases in preventable emergency department (ED) visits and declines in 30-day follow-up after mental health discharge (MHFU)—and no impact on Medicare costs. In Washington, there was also a decrease in long-stay NF use (12.4 percent, p<0.001) and skilled NF admissions (21.7 percent, p<0.001). However, the demonstration resulted in decreases in physician visits and 30-day MHFU. There was a favorable decrease in Medicare costs. The impact of the FAI demonstrations on NF use was favorable for both States, while the impact on service utilization and Medicare costs was mixed and more favorable in Washington. Washington’s care coordination model was intensive and targeted to high-cost individuals while Colorado provided minimal care coordination. Coordinated care and integrated long-term services and support may help postpone NF institutionalization, but there is no evidence these activities reduced preventable hospitalizations or ED visits.

Medicare Costs by Disability and Community-Dwelling Status

Understanding population-level Medicare expenditure patterns for older adults with functional disability is critical to focus supports to reduce costly and potentially burdensome health care use. We used the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) to assess quarterly Medicare expenditures over the 12 months following NHATS interview. We examine Medicare expenditure patterns for older adults in nursing homes (N=386), in the community and without disability (N=20,103), with disability and dementia (N=2,008), and with disability but not dementia (N=2,945). One-year mortality ranged from 2.0% for those without disability in the community to 25.9% for those residing in nursing homes. Among those surviving 1 year, Medicare expenditures the first quarter after NHATS survey ranged from $1,794 (95% CI $1,690-$1,898) for those with no disability to $5,177 (95% CI $4,535-$5,818) for those with disability and dementia. We assess trends over the following two years, and find that trajectories vary by clinical grouping.

Urgent, Comprehensive Federal Action Needed To Stem Mortality and Medicare Costs Associated With Antimicrobial Resistance

This paper is a call to action for the policies necessary to reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance, including federal investments in antibiotic stewardship, antibiotic innovation, surveillance, research, diagnostics, infection prevention, the infectious diseases workforce, and global coordination.

An Empirical Model of Medicare Costs: The Role of Health Insurance, Employment, and Delays in Medicare Enrollment

Medicare is one of the largest federal social insurance programs in the United States and the secondary payer for Medicare beneficiaries covered by employer-provided health insurance (EPHI). However, an increasing number of individuals are delaying their Medicare enrollment when they first become eligible at age 65. Using administrative data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), this paper estimates the effects of EPHI, employment, and delays in Medicare enrollment on Medicare costs. Given the administrative nature of the data, we are able to disentangle and estimate the Medicare as secondary payer (MSP) effect and the work effects on Medicare costs, as well as to construct delay enrollment indicators. Using Heckman’s sample selection model, we estimate that MSP and being employed are associated with a lower probability of observing positive Medicare spending and a lower level of Medicare spending. This paper quantifies annual savings of $5.37 billion from MSP and being employed. Delays in Medicare enrollment generate additional annual savings of $10.17 billion. Owing to the links between employment, health insurance coverage, and Medicare costs presented in this research, our findings may be of interest to policy makers who should take into account the consequences of reforms on the Medicare system.