Economic Data Analysis- Impact of Patient Protection & the ACA 2010 Analysis of Trends in Utilization and Cost for Arizona
An analysis of healthcare utilization data can help identify whether the trends in utilization and cost are positive or negative. It can also identify whether healthcare access problems and disparities exist within the healthcare system. The analysis of the trends in utilization and costs in Arizona is based on the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care 2018 Data Update compiled and edited by Bronner et al. in 2021.
The Medicare reimbursement rates for 2018 were among the lowest in the U.S, with regions of Apache, Cochise, Greenlee, and Graham ranging between $7967 and $9600, while other regions had reimbursement rates below $10,350 except for some regions in Maricopa and Pinal counties with a Medicare reimbursement rate of $11,800. These rates show lower Medicare expenditures, which may be an indicator of low utilization rates in the majority of the regions in Arizona.
The rate of hospice use for chronically ill decedents dying in 2018 was the highest throughout all regions of Arizona. All regions had utilization rates of above 63.2% for chronically ill Medicare patients who died in 2018, except for the Mohave and Apache regions, which had rates between 59.1 percent and 63.2 percent and below 50.25 percent, respectively.
The rate of hospital utilization for end-of-life care for patients with chronic illness in Arizona was among the lowest in the U.S. The regions of Santa Cruz, Pima, Cochise, Greenlee, Pinal, Graham, and some parts of Mohave and Coconino had utilization rates below 6.9. The rest of Arizona had utilization rates between 7.6 and 9.2.
Arizona State has a medium to high rate of physician utilization by chronically ill Medicare patients seeing ten or more different physicians during the last six months. In a majority of the regions in Arizona, multiple-physician utilization was between 46.7 percent and 56.5 percent, while some parts of Maricopa had between 56.5 percent and 68.3 percent, which was among the highest in the country. This shows an increase in the utilization of different physicians by chronically ill patients. The utilization and cost data presented for Arizona indicate a positive increase in the various utilization trends and costs based on the changes between 2011 and 2018.