End-of life medical spending and care pathways in the last 12 months of life: A comprehensive analysis of the national claims database in France.

Background: To inform policy makers on efficient provision of end-of-life care, we estimated the 12-month medical expenditures of French decedents in 2015.

Methods: We estimated total medical expenditures by service type and diagnosis category, and analyzed care pathways for breast cancer, dementia, chronic obstructive lung disease.

Results: 501,121 individuals died in 2015, 59% of whom were in a hospital at the time of death.