The cost of treating heart failure patients increased 16.5 percent between 1998 and 2008, with a 5 percent decrease in the one-year mortality rate, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
To track treatment trends, researchers took a random sample of 20 percent of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries admitted to a hospital for heart failure between 1998 and 1999, and a 100 percent sample for the same population in 2008.
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While treatment cost increased approximately $6,000, the volume of heart attack hospitalizations dropped nearly 20 percent over the 10-year period. Of the increase in treatment cost, one quarter occurred within 30 days of admission, while the rest occurred 31 days to one year after admission.
Compared to 1998 costs, spending within 30 days of admission increased 7.5 percent, while spending between 31 days and one year of admission increased nearly 30 percent by 2008.
The study concluded more work must be done to understand the distribution of the spending increase in heart failure readmissions.
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