WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- The amount Medicare pays state to state for the chronically ill appears disconnected from better outcomes, a new U.S. study says.
According to a report published this week in USA Today, a new study from Dartmouth Medical School found that, although the agency's payments differ by tens of thousands from state to state, the higher-spending states see no better results in terms of longer life or patient satisfaction.
For example, Medicare spent $100,745 to care for each chronically ill patient during the last two years of their lives at Newark, N.J.-based St. Michael's Medical Center, which the report said is the most expensive hospital in the nation's most expensive state.
But at the state's least expensive hospital, Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin, Medicare spent only a fraction of that -- $34,275 -- for end-of-life care, the report said, quoting the Dartmouth study.
However, although the pricier facilities offer more in terms of more physician visits and tests, patients in the high-end hospitals "have slightly shorter life spans and are less satisfied with their care," the report said.
The newspaper quoted the Dartmouth researchers saying, "The problem is waste and over-use in high-rate states, regions and hospitals -- not under-use and health care rationing in low-rate areas and institutions."
Although previous Dartmouth studies showed wide regional variation in Medicare payments for the chronically ill, the latest study is the first to include data on individual hospitals and systems, comparing them with their counterparts on the amount of care they provide, USA Today reported.
