Post-acute Care Trajectories for Rural Medicare Beneficiaries


Description:

This study examined post-acute care utilization for rural Medicare beneficiaries following acute hospitalization. Post-acute care services help patients transition from hospitalization in acute care facilities to their homes. Post-acute care services include skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and medical social work services designed to help patients maximize their functional abilities and return safely to community living. Skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies provide the vast majority of post-acute care services to Medicare beneficiaries. Yet, post-acute care services for rural Medicare beneficiaries specifically have not been well documented, despite the unique challenges of providing post-acute care in rural communities and possible limitations accessing these services. Even less is known about whether rural Medicare beneficiaries with planned discharges to post-acute care providers actually receive those services. This project uses Medicare administrative data to describe the most common types of care trajectories among rural beneficiaries following discharge from acute hospitalization and compares planned versus actual discharges to skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies following acute hospitalization.

 

Funder:

HRSA

 

Status:

Complete

 

Publications/Presentations

Authors Title Type Date Documents/Media
Mroz TM, Garberson LA, Andrilla CHA, Skillman SM, Larson EH, Patterson DG Post-acute care trajectories for rural Medicare beneficiaries: planned versus actual hospital discharges to skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies PUBLICATION 03-24-2021
Policy Brief
Mroz TM, Garberson LA, Andrilla CHA, Skillman SM, Patterson DG, Larson EH Planned versus actual discharges to post-acute care for rural Medicare beneficiaries PRESENTATION 07-25-2020