Disparities in Clinical Outcomes in Medicare Home Health Care

Out Of Reach: Inequities In The Use Of High-Quality Home Health Agencies

Patients receiving home health services from high-quality home health agencies often experience fewer adverse outcomes (for example, hospitalizations) than patients receiving services from low-quality agencies. Using administrative data from 2016 and regression analysis, we examined individual- and neighborhood-level racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic factors associated with the use of high-quality home health agencies. We found that Black and Hispanic home health patients had a 2.2-percentage-point and a 2.5-percentage-point lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use, respectively, compared with their White counterparts within the same neighborhoods. Low-income patients had a 1.2-percentage-point lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use compared with their higher-income counterparts, whereas home health patients residing in neighborhoods with higher proportions of marginalized residents had a lower adjusted probability of high-quality agency use. Some 40-77 percent of the disparities in high-quality agency use were attributable to neighborhood-level factors. Ameliorating these inequities will require policies that dismantle structural and institutional barriers related to residential segregation.

Health Disparities Attributed to Medicare-Medicaid Dual-Eligible Status in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease

OBJECTIVE

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a prevalent and debilitating disease that can be effectively treated by surgical revascularization. However, Medicare-Medicaid dual-eligible patients experience worse long-term outcomes, notably higher rates of amputation and mortality, relative to other insurance groups. This study aims to investigate how insurance status may perpetuate health disparities in PAD outcomes.

METHODS

The National Inpatient Sample was queried from 2000 to 2011 for patients ≥18 years with PAD who underwent surgical revascularization with hospitalization. Patients were stratified by insurance, and dual-eligibles were compared to Medicare-only, Medicaid-only, private insurance, and self-pay patients. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of dual-eligible status on postoperative outcomes such as inpatient mortality, complications, and favorable discharge (home or home with services).

RESULTS

A total of 771,790 hospitalizations were included in the analysis and stratified according to insurance type. Dual-eligible patients had the highest rates of major (32%) and extreme (11%) severity of illness and the highest rates of major (19%) and extreme (6%) risk of mortality among all insurance groups (p<0.001). Dual-eligibility status was independently associated with reduced odds of favorable discharge relative to all patients (p<0.001) and increased length of stay relative to Medicare-only (p=0.002) and private-payor groups (p<0.001). While dual-eligible patients had increased mortality odds relative to Medicaid-only and self-pay groups, they did not have significantly different odds of perioperative complications relative to all other insurance groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Medicare-Medicaid dual-eligible patients with PAD had more severe clinical presentations, a greater risk of extended hospitalizations, and a lower likelihood of being discharged home, relative to patients without dual-eligibility. Further studies are needed to examine the link between discharge disposition and disparities in health outcomes, as well as investigate interventions that effectively address the increased severity of PAD in dual-eligible patients.