MCBS Highlights: Comparing Medicare Beneficiaries, by Type of Post-Acute Care Received: 1999

Survey (MCBS) is a versatile analytic tool that can be used to compare different populations within the Medicare Program. This highlight utilizes data from the 1999 MCBS Cost and Use File to compare functional limitations, health status, chronic conditions, marital status, and household composition of Medicare beneficiaries who received acute care services by the type, if any, of post-acute care (PAC) received. The data that follows divides Medicare beneficiaries into three categories: those who received PAC at a skilled nursing facility (SNF), those who received PAC from a home health agency (HHA), and those who received acute care with no PAC. The categories previously mentioned are mutually exclusive so beneficiaries who received both types of PAC during 1999 were considered to only to have received care from a SNF. Those living in a long-term care facility for all of 1999 as well as those who were enrolled in a Medicare health maintenance organization were excluded from the results. The population that resulted consisted of 2,388 MCBS sample persons who received acute care during 1999. Nationally, the MCBS acute care population represents over 6.85 million Medicare beneficiaries or 17 percent of the Medicare population. Within this 17 percent, 28 percent received PAC from a HHA, 17 percent received PAC from a SNF, and the remaining 55 percent received inpatient hospital services with no PAC.