Regional variation in length of stay for stroke inpatient rehabilitation in traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

Regional variation in health care use threatens efficient and equitable resource allocation. Within the Medicare program, variation in care delivery may differ between centrally administered traditional Medicare (TM) and privately managed Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which rely on different strategies to control care utilization. As MA enrollment grows, it is particularly important for program design and long-term health care equity to understand regional variation between TM and MA plans.

Role of Telehealth Use in Chronic Care Management and Disparity Reduction Among the Aging Population.

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Post-Acute Care in Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities Between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage Plans Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives: Compare post-acute care (PAC) utilization and outcomes in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) between beneficiaries covered by Traditional Medicare (TM) and Medicare Advantage (MA) plans during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the previous year.

Design: This multiyear cross-sectional study used Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility-Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI) data to assess PAC delivery from January 2019 to December 2020.

Setting And Participants: Inpatient rehabilitation for stroke, hip fracture, joint replacement, and cardiac and pulmonary conditions among Medicare beneficiaries 65 years or older.

Use telehealth as needed: telehealth substitutes in-person primary care and associates with the changes in unplanned events and follow-up visits.

Background: Telehealth rapidly expanded since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to understand how telehealth can substitute in-person services by 1) estimating the changes in non-COVID emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and care costs among US Medicare beneficiaries by visit modality (telehealth vs. in-person) during the COVID-19 pandemic relative to the previous year; 2) comparing the follow-up time and patterns between telehealth and in-person care.

The Relative Importance of Hospital Discharge and Patient Composition in Changing Post-Acute Care Utilization and Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed care delivery. But the mechanisms of changes were less understood.

Objectives: Examine the extent to which the volume and pattern of hospital discharge and patient composition contributed to the changes in post-acute care (PAC) utilization and outcomes during the pandemic.

Disparities in the Use of In-Person and Telehealth Primary Care Among High- and Low-Risk Medicare Beneficiaries During COVID-19.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a difference-in-differences design to estimate differences in primary care outpatient clinic visit utilization among high- and low-risk Medicare aging beneficiaries from an Accountable Care Organization during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a control cohort from the previous year. High-risk was defined as having a Hierarchical Condition Category score of 2 or higher. A total of 582 101 patient-month records were analyzed.

AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM): A Selection of Abstracts Accepted for Oral Presentation, 2021.

Research Objective: To investigate the extent to which telehealth visits mitigated COVID-19 pandemic-related impacts on in-person outpatient visits among Medicare beneficiaries, including those who are high-cost high-need. High-cost high-need patients were defined as those 65 years or older and with 2 or higher Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCC) scores.

Study Design: A difference-in-difference design was used to estimate the change in outpatient in-person and telehealth utilization for the COVID-19 pandemic cohort compared to the control cohort in the prior year.

Inpatient rehabilitation service utilization and outcomes under US ACA Medicaid expansion.

Background: To investigate the impact of the US Medicaid expansion on care utilization and health outcomes of patients treated in the inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF).

Methods: A retrospective observational study with a difference-in-difference design. The data was obtained from Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility - Patient Assessment Instrument (IRF-PAI).

Life Partner Influence on Uptake of Preventive Services: Evidence From Flu Vaccine Adoption Among the Aging Population.

This study examines how the patterns of life partner concordance on preventive health service uptake vary by a partner's previous behavioral history and between genders. This study uses 2008 and 2012 waves of Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of U.S.