KNG Health was contracted by a long-term care hospital (LTCH) to conduct a series of studies to better understand (1) the value of care provided by the hospital to patients in its market area; (2) the value it provides to short term acute care hospitals, and (3) referral patterns in its market. To address these objectives, KNG Health conducted a series of studies using Medicare claims data. In the first study, we compared mortality, readmissions, discharge to community, and Medicare spending per beneficiary between patients treated in the client’s LTCH to similar patients treated in other LTCHs and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in the same market area. We used propensity score matching to construct a comparison group of patients who have similar clinical characteristics to the population of the LTCH examined. In the second study, we conducted a market analysis that identifies the referral patterns among patient discharged from short-term acute care hospitals in the LTCH’s market area. This analysis revealed the LTCH’s market share among cases that fulfill LTCH patient criteria as well as the share of cases that are referred to other providers. The analysis was conducted for cases that fulfilled LTCH patient criteria, and the results were presented separately by MS-DRG. In the third study, we predict cost savings that short-term acute care hospitals can experience by transferring their cases to the LTCH earlier. We estimate a predictive model of average hospital costs and use the model’s results to predict cost savings under different counterfactual scenarios regarding length of stay. The findings are incorporated into an interactive Excel tool that allows the user to identify predictions for different MS-DRGs and length of stays.
Services : Health Economics & Outcomes Research Expertise: Comparative Effectiveness, Health Outcomes and Evaluation, Medicare
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