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Preventable hospitalizations and socioeconomic status
1Wagner Graduate School, New York University, USA.
Health Affairs (Project Hope)
|April 29, 1998
Summary
Preventable hospitalizations are more common in lower socioeconomic status elders, challenging their use as sole health plan performance indicators. This highlights the need to account for patient characteristics in performance metrics.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
- Geriatric Medicine
Background:
- Preventable hospitalizations are often used to assess health plan quality.
- Socioeconomic status (SES) may influence hospitalization rates independently of health plan performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between socioeconomic status and preventable hospitalizations in elderly Medicare beneficiaries.
- To determine if SES influences health plan performance metrics.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of elderly Medicare beneficiaries' hospitalization data.
- Utilized an up-to-date severity-of-illness adjustment system.
- Examined the relationship between SES and preventable hospitalizations.
Main Results:
- Preventable hospitalizations were more frequent among elders with lower socioeconomic status.
- This association remained significant even after adjusting for illness severity.
- Health plan performance indicators may inadvertently reflect patient socioeconomic characteristics.
Conclusions:
- Preventable hospitalizations may not solely indicate poor health plan performance.
- Socioeconomic factors are critical confounders in assessing health plan quality.
- Further research is needed to refine accountability metrics for health plans, considering patient demographics.