High Cost of Hospitalization Rates of LTC Medicare Beneficiaries

A new Kaiser Family Foundation report provided insight into another method for reducing Medicare costs – reducing hospitalization among patients in nursing homes and other long-term care (LTC) facilities. The report estimated that a 15% reduction in hospitalization rates in Medicare LTC beneficiaries could potentially save Medicare $1.3 billion dollars in 2010. It is estimated that hospitalization rates for long-term care facility residents can be reduced by 30-67% since a lot of the hospitalizations are preventable if the appropriate interventions are given.

I think this is a wonderful potential source for reducing public health care expenditures. However, I wonder what methods CMS can use to attack the high hospitalization rate in this patient population besides not paying for “never events” and “preventable readmissions.” Can Medicare coordinate with Medicaid to restructure LTC payments to provide incentives for facilities to provide better care and reduce hospitalization rates for their residents? What are your thoughts on how to reduce this area of wasteful Medicare spending?

The report can be found here.