Differences in rehabilitation evaluation access for rural and socially disadvantaged stroke survivors

Most stroke survivors have ongoing deficits and report unmet needs. Despite evidence that rehabilitation improves stroke survivors' function, access to occupational and physical therapy is limited. Describing access to care for disadvantaged communities for different levels of stroke severity will provide proportions used to create Markov economic models to demonstrate the value of rehabilitation.

The objective of this study was to explore differences in the frequency of rehabilitation evaluations via outpatient therapy and home health for Medicare Part B ischemic stroke survivors in rural and socially disadvantaged locations.

We completed a retrospective, descriptive cohort analysis using the 2018 and 2019 5% Medicare Limited Data Sets (LDS) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services using STROBE guidelines for observational studies. We extracted rehabilitation Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes for those who received occupational or physical therapy to examine differences in therapy evaluations for rural and socially disadvantaged populations.

Of the 9,076 stroke survivors in this cohort, 44.2% did not receive any home health or outpatient therapy. Of these, 64.7% had a moderate or severe stroke, indicating an unmet need for therapy. Only 2.0% of stroke survivors received outpatient occupational therapy within the first year Rural and socially disadvantaged communities accessed rehabilitation evaluations at lower rates than general stroke survivors.

These findings describe the poor access to home health and outpatient rehabilitation for stroke survivors, particularly in traditionally underserved populations. These results will influence future economic evaluations of interventions aimed at improving access to care.