Journal article
Empirical-Based Typology of Health Care Utilization by Medicare Eligible Veterans
Health services research, Vol.53 Suppl 3(6), pp.5181-5200
12/2018
DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.12995
PMCID: PMC6235816
PMID: 29896771
Abstract
Up to 70 percent of patients who receive care through Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities also receive care from non-VA providers. Using applied classification techniques, this study sought to improve understanding of how elderly VA patients use VA services and complementary use of non-VA care.
The study included 1,721,900 veterans age 65 and older who were enrolled in VA and Medicare during 2013 with at least one VA encounter during 2013. Outpatient and inpatient encounters and medications received in VA were classified, and mutually exclusive patient subsets distinguished by patterns of VA service use were derived empirically using latent class analysis (LCA). Patient characteristics and complementary use of non-VA care were compared by patient subset.
Five patterns of VA service use were identified that were distinguished by quantity of VA medical and specialty services, medication complexity, and mental health services. Low VA Medical users tend to be healthier and rely on non-VA services, while High VA users have multiple high cost illnesses and concentrate their care in the VA.
VA patients distinguished by patterns of VA service use differ in illness burden and the use of non-VA services. This information may be useful for framing efforts to optimize access to care and care coordination for elderly VA patients.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Empirical-Based Typology of Health Care Utilization by Medicare Eligible Veterans
- Creators
- Mary Vaughan Sarrazin - Department of Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IAGary E Rosenthal - Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NCCarolyn L Turvey - Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Health services research, Vol.53 Suppl 3(6), pp.5181-5200
- Publisher
- United States
- DOI
- 10.1111/1475-6773.12995
- PMID
- 29896771
- PMCID
- PMC6235816
- ISSN
- 0017-9124
- eISSN
- 1475-6773
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000738, name: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; DOI: 10.13039/100007217, name: Health Services Research and Development
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2018
- Academic Unit
- Psychiatry; Health Management and Policy; Epidemiology; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984003438102771
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