Millions of Americans may be eligible for Marketplace coverage outside open enrollment as a result of qualifying life events.

Federal regulations establish special enrollment periods--times outside of open enrollment periods--during which people may enroll in or change their health insurance plans offered through the federal and state-based exchanges, or Marketplaces. To be eligible, a person must experience a shift in income or another "qualifying life event," such as a change in marital status or the number of dependents, or the loss of minimum essential health coverage. We produced an upper-bound estimate that 3.7 million nonelderly adults with coverage through a federal or state Marketplace could have experienced a qualifying life event and become eligible for a special enrollment period because of income shifts. In addition, more than 8.4 million nonelderly adults who did not have Marketplace coverage--three-quarters of whom had no insurance--became eligible for a special enrollment period as a result of other qualifying life events. Many if not most of these people may be unaware of their eligibility. In states that did not expand Medicaid eligibility, we estimated that 1.9 million people experienced income shifts outside of the open enrollment period that would make them eligible for Marketplace subsidies. However, because they were uninsured or had nongroup coverage (instead of Medicaid) during the most recent open enrollment period, they had to wait until the next period to enroll in a Marketplace plan.

National health care costs of peripheral arterial disease in the Medicare population.

Lower extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is prevalent in the Medicare population and is associated with high rates of myocardial infarction, stroke, amputation, and death. Nevertheless, national health expenditures for PAD are not known. We hypothesized that PAD-related costs are high, increase with age, and that treatment rates would be less than known PAD prevalence. The objective was to determine national health care expenditures for PAD in the United States. PAD-related treatment costs were calculated in the elderly, non-disabled Medicare population. The cost analysis relied on the 5% control population for the linked SEER-Medicare data and Medicare claims for the calendar year 2001, identifying PAD cases based on diagnosis and procedure codes. Costs were aggregated separately for inpatient and outpatient treatment and estimates adjusted to reflect the Medicare population. A total of $4.37 billion was spent on PAD-related treatment and 88% of expenditures were for inpatient care. Medicare program outlays totaled $3.87 billion, while enrollees (or their supplemental insurance) spent the remaining $500 million. In total, 6.8% of the elderly Medicare population received treatment for PAD. Treatment increased with age at rates of 4.5%, 7.5%, and 11.8% for individuals aged 65-74, 75-84, and >85 years, respectively. PAD-related costs accounted for approximately 13% of all Medicare Part A and B expenditures for the PAD-treated cohort, and 2.3% of total Medicare Part A and B expenditures. In conclusion, US national PAD-related costs are high, associated with inpatient care, and increase with age. PAD is treated at rates lower than the known PAD prevalence as only approximately one-third of the population with known PAD had detectable PAD-related health care costs in our analysis. The potential impact of earlier PAD detection and use of outpatient preventive strategies on total national PAD health care costs is unknown.

The impact of Medicare coverage policies on health care utilization.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether Medicare coverage policies affect utilization of services in Medicare. DATA SOURCES: We constructed an analysis data set for eight different procedures using secondary data obtained from Medicare claims (1999-2002) and Medicare coverage policies posted on Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services website. STUDY DESIGN: We analyzed the impact of coverage policies using difference-in-difference approach in a regression framework. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We found that in only one case (transesophageal echocardiography) out of eight did utilization change (reduced by 13.6 percent) after the effective date of the local policies. There is no systematic pattern that policies affect utilization, and the type of coverage policy does not seem to play an important role in its impact. CONCLUSIONS: Coverage policies have the potential but do not consistently impact utilization as policy makers intend and expect them to do. These findings raise significant policy questions about the effectiveness of Medicare coverage policies, which deserve further study.

Medicare-certified home health care: urban-rural differences in utilization.

CONTEXT: Availability of Medicare-certified home health care (HHC) to rural elders can prevent more expensive institutional care. To date, utilization of HHC by rural elders has not been studied in detail. PURPOSE: To examine urban-rural differences in Medicare HHC utilization. METHODS: The 2002 100% Medicare HHC claims and denominator files were used to estimate use of HHC and to make urban-rural comparisons on the basis of utilization levels within ZIP codes. FINDINGS: Overall, the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries living in areas with little HHC utilization is relatively low. Rural elders, however, are more likely than their urban counterparts to live in such areas. Less than 1% of urban beneficiaries live in ZIP codes with no or low use of HHC, but over 17% of the most rural beneficiaries live in such areas. CONCLUSIONS: Continued monitoring of rural HHC utilization and access is important, especially as Medicare seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of payment increases to rural home health agencies.

Postoperative irradiation for rectal cancer increases the risk of small bowel obstruction after surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk of small bowel obstruction (SBO) after irradiation (RT) for rectal cancer BACKGROUND: : SBO is a frequent complication after standard resection of rectal cancer. Although the use of RT is increasing, the effect of RT on risk of SBO is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry data linked to Medicare claims data to determine the effect of RT on risk of SBO. Patients 65 years of age and older diagnosed with nonmetastatic invasive rectal cancer treated with standard resection from 1986 through 1999 were included. We determined whether patients had undergone RT and evaluated the effect of RT and timing of RT on the incidence of admission to hospital for SBO, adjusting for potential confounders using a proportional hazards model. RESULTS: We identified a total of 5606 patients who met our selection criteria: 1994 (36%) underwent RT, 74% postoperatively. Patients were followed for a mean of 3.8 years. A total of 614 patients were admitted for SBO over the study period; 15% of patients in the RT group and 9% of patients in the nonirradiated group (P < 0.001). After controlling for age, sex, race, diagnosis year, type of surgery, and stage, we found that patients who underwent postoperative RT were at higher risk of SBO, hazard ratio 1.69 (95% CI, 1.3-2.1). However, the long-term risk associated with preoperative irradiation was not statistically significant (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.55-1.46). CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative but not preoperative RT after standard resection of rectal cancer results in an increased risk of SBO over time.

Access to home-based hospice care for rural populations: Identification of areas lacking service.

BACKGROUND: Many persons dying of cancer enroll in home-based hospice prior to death. It is established in the literature that persons in rural settings are less likely to use hospice than persons living in urban areas. We examine whether this is due, in part, to a lack of hospice providers serving rural areas. METHODS: The 100% Medicare enrollment and hospice files for 2000-2002 were the basis for this study. We used a Bayesian smoothing technique to estimate the ZIP-code-level service area for each Medicare-certified hospice in the United States. These service areas were combined to identify ZIP codes not served by any hospice. RESULTS: Overall, approximately 332,000 elders (7.5% of ZIP codes) reside in areas not served by home-based hospice. Each year over 15,000 deaths occur in these unserved areas. There was a strong association between lack of service and urban/rural gradient. One hundred percent of the ZIP codes in the most urban areas (>1,000,000 people) are served by hospice and only 2.8% of the ZIP codes in urban areas of less than 1,000,000 are unserved. In rural areas adjacent to urban areas, over 9% of ZIP codes are unserved and in rural areas not adjacent to an urban area almost 24% of ZIP codes are not served by hospice. CONCLUSIONS: While the majority of the elderly population of the US resides in areas currently served by Medicare-certified hospice, there is a geographically large area that lacks home-based hospice services. Current payment policies may need to be adjusted to facilitate hospice availability to these rural populations.