12/18/2019

Industry Trend Report Tracks Hospice Length of Stay, Utilization

In its 2019 Industry Trend Report, data analytics firm Trella Health (formerly Excel Health Group) provides timely insights into hospice trends, including a focus on hospice admissions, utilization, and length of stay as of the first quarter of 2019. Following are some data points of particular interest.

Hospice Admissions: Trella found that hospice admissions grew by 6.6 percent between Q4 2018 and Q1 2019, but average growth of only one percent when Q1 2019 is compared with Q1 2018. This is consistent with seasonal trends that Trella has tracked over recent years.

Utilization: Trella calculates hospice utilization using the percentage of patients in a given year who were discharged from an inpatient stay, died, and had a hospice claim within six months prior to death, divided by the number of all patients who were discharged from an inpatient facility and died during the same year. Using this calculation Trella found that hospice utilization by decedents surpassed 50 percent in Q3 2018, utilization dropped to 49.3 percent in Q4 2018 and 46.9 percent in Q1 2019. For comparison, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) also provides routine data on hospice utilization, but calculates it somewhat differently: MedPAC calculates the percent of decedents during any given year that had, at some point, received hospice care. For 2017, MedPAC calculates hospice utilization at 50.5percent and recently noted that for 2018 utilization was 50.7 percent.

Length of Stay: Trella’s report also examines hospice length of stay, which grew from74.5 days in Q1 2018 to 77.9 days in Q1 2019. For comparison, MedPAC data calculates the average number of hospice care days received during the lifetimes of decedents who die within the given year. MedPAC found average length of stay at 88.6 days in 2017 and 89.6 days in 2018. The median length of stay was 18 days for 2017 and 2018.

It should be noted that Trella and MedPAC calculate these data differently and the values may be used for different purposes. The Industry Trend Report has a wealth of other information, including data on home health and other post-acute providers, as well as state-specific values for some metrics. Access to the report is available HERE. 

(Shared from NAHC)