Study: Palliative Care Helps Cut Medicaid Hospital Costs
Palliative care teams helped reduce inpatient costs for the care of seriously ill Medicaid beneficiaries by an average of $6,900 per admission, according to a Health Affairs study. The study found that New York's Medicaid program could reduce spending by between $84 million and $252 million annually if every hospital in the state with 150 or more beds had a fully operational palliative care consultation team.
- "Study: Palliative Care for Medicaid Patients Reduces Their Hospital Costs" (Hobson, "Health Blog," Wall Street Journal, 3/8).
- "Palliative Care Cut Costs $6,900 Per Patient, Study Finds" (Page, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/9).