Recent attention on both the state and national level has focused on the trend of more and more patients receiving care in outpatient settings. Now a new national study from KNG Health Consulting LLC and commissioned by the American Hospital Association indicates that Medicare patients, including cancer patients, who receive care in a hospital outpatient department are more likely to be poorer and have more severe chronic conditions than Medicare patients treated in an independent physician office.
According to the study, relative to those seen in a physician’s office, Medicare patients seen in hospital outpatient departments are more likely to be: from lower-income areas; burdened with more severe chronic conditions; previously hospitalized; eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid; and previously cared for in an emergency department, thereby having higher Medicare spending prior to receiving ambulatory care.
The Massachusetts Center for Health Information & Analysis has identified a rising outpatient care cost trend in the commonwealth; the
new AHA report may help explain part of that trend.