The Impact of Disability and Social Determinants of Health on Condition-Specific Readmissions beyond Medicare Risk Adjustments: A Cohort Study.

TitleThe Impact of Disability and Social Determinants of Health on Condition-Specific Readmissions beyond Medicare Risk Adjustments: A Cohort Study.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsMeddings, J, Reichert, H, Smith, SN, Iwashyna, TJ, Langa, KM, Hofer, TP, McMahon, LF
JournalJ Gen Intern Med
Volume32
Issue1
Pagination71-80
Date Published2017 01
ISSN Number1525-1497
KeywordsActivities of Daily Living, Cognitive Dysfunction, Comorbidity, Disability Evaluation, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Myocardial Infarction, Patient Readmission, Pneumonia, Retrospective Studies, Risk Adjustment, Social determinants of health
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Readmission rates after pneumonia, heart failure, and acute myocardial infarction hospitalizations are risk-adjusted for age, gender, and medical comorbidities and used to penalize hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of disability and social determinants of health on condition-specific readmissions beyond current risk adjustment.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective cohort study of Medicare patients using 1) linked Health and Retirement Study-Medicare claims data (HRS-CMS) and 2) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases (Florida, Washington) linked with ZIP Code-level measures from the Census American Community Survey (ACS-HCUP). Multilevel logistic regression models assessed the impact of disability and selected social determinants of health on readmission beyond current risk adjustment.

MAIN MEASURES: Outcomes measured were readmissions ≤30 days after hospitalizations for pneumonia, heart failure, or acute myocardial infarction. HRS-CMS models included disability measures (activities of daily living [ADL] limitations, cognitive impairment, nursing home residence, home healthcare use) and social determinants of health (spouse, children, wealth, Medicaid, race). ACS-HCUP model measures were ZIP Code-percentage of residents ≥65 years of age with ADL difficulty, spouse, income, Medicaid, and patient-level and hospital-level race.

KEY RESULTS: For pneumonia, ≥3 ADL difficulties (OR 1.61, CI 1.079-2.391) and prior home healthcare needs (OR 1.68, CI 1.204-2.355) increased readmission in HRS-CMS models (N = 1631); ADL difficulties (OR 1.20, CI 1.063-1.352) and 'other' race (OR 1.14, CI 1.001-1.301) increased readmission in ACS-HCUP models (N = 27,297). For heart failure, children (OR 0.66, CI 0.437-0.984) and wealth (OR 0.53, CI 0.349-0.787) lowered readmission in HRS-CMS models (N = 2068), while black (OR 1.17, CI 1.056-1.292) and 'other' race (OR 1.14, CI 1.036-1.260) increased readmission in ACS-HCUP models (N = 37,612). For acute myocardial infarction, nursing home status (OR 4.04, CI 1.212-13.440) increased readmission in HRS-CMS models (N = 833); 'other' patient-level race (OR 1.18, CI 1.012-1.385) and hospital-level race (OR 1.06, CI 1.001-1.125) increased readmission in ACS-HCUP models (N = 17,496).

CONCLUSIONS: Disability and social determinants of health influence readmission risk when added to the current Medicare risk adjustment models, but the effect varies by condition.

URLhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11606-016-3869-xhttp://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-016-3869-x.pdfhttp://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-016-3869-x.pdfhttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-016-3869-x/fulltext.html
DOI10.1007/s11606-016-3869-x
User Guide Notes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27848189?dopt=Abstract

Short TitleJ GEN INTERN MED
Alternate JournalJ Gen Intern Med
Citation Key8820
PubMed ID27848189
PubMed Central IDPMC5215164
Grant ListP30 AG024824 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
P30 DK092926 / DK / NIDDK NIH HHS / United States
R01 HS018334 / HS / AHRQ HHS / United States
U01 AG009740 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States