Trends in post-acute care use in Medicare Advantage versus Traditional Medicare: A retrospective cohort analysis

Trends in post-acute care use in Medicare Advantage versus Traditional Medicare: A retrospective cohort analysis
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association; by Robert E Burke, Indrakshi Roy, Franya Hutchins, Song Zhong, Syama Patel, Liam Rose, Amit Kumar, Rachel M Werner; 8/24
We sought to describe national trends in hospitalization and post-acute care utilization rates in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health (HH) for both Medicare Advantage (MA) and Traditional Medicare (TM) beneficiaries, reaching up to the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-2019). We found hospitalizations, SNF stays, and HH stays were all decreasing over time in both populations. Although similar proportions of MA and TM beneficiaries received SNF or HH care, MA beneficiaries received fewer days. The largest difference we found was in the number of post-acute care providers used in TM and MA, with MA using far fewer; however, quality ratings were similar among post-acute care providers used in each program.