Year(s) Funded: 2012-2013
Topic(s): Health Services, Healthcare Access, Healthcare Financing, Medicare
Project Lead: Ira Moscovice
Statement of the Problem: Few studies have characterized who the high cost patients are in rural communities and what can be done to manage their spending patterns. It is important to understand the relationship between costs and service use to appropriately design and target financial incentives for providers to better coordinate care and reduce costs in a rural context.
Project goals: The purpose of this study is to: 1) assess the relationship between service utilization patterns and costs for rural Medicare beneficiaries across the rural continuum and 2) examine the relationships between rural beneficiaries’ service utilization and market structure.
Methods: The Medicare Beneficiary Annual Summary File will be used to analyze service use and per capita expenditures for rural Medicare beneficiaries, to identify factors associated with high Medicare expenditures for rural beneficiaries, and to describe service use and costs throughout the rural continuum as reflected in Hospital Service Areas. Multivariate regression analysis will be used to examine the relationships between provider market structure, beneficiary demographics, beneficiary service use and expenditures.