End-of-life emergency department use and healthcare expenditures among older adults: A nationally representative study

End-of-life emergency department use and healthcare expenditures among older adults: A nationally representative study
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Cameron J Gettel, Courtney Kitchen, Craig Rothenberg, Yuxiao Song, Susan N Hastings, Maura Kennedy, Kei Ouchi, Adrian D Haimovich, Ula Hwang, Arjun K Venkatesh; 9/24
Emergency department (ED) visits at end-of-life may cause financial strain and serve as a marker of inadequate access to community services and health care. We sought to examine end-of-life ED use, total healthcare spending, and out-of-pocket spending in a nationally representative sample. One in three older adults visit the ED in the last month of life, and approximately one in two utilize ED services in the last half-year of life, with evidence of associated considerable total and out-of-pocket spending.