Hospitalization, Readmission, and Death Experience of Noninstitutionalized Medicare Fee-for-service Beneficiaries Aged 65 and Over.

OBJECTIVE This report provides descriptive measures of hospitalization, readmission, and death among the noninstitutionalized population aged 65 and over using data from a national survey of the noninstitutionalized population linked to Medicare data and the National Death Index. The estimates are presented by self-reported demographic, socioeconomic, heath status, and other characteristics gathered during the interview with the survey participants. METHODS Data are from the 2000–2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked to 2000–2006 Medicare data and the National Center for Health Statistics 2011 Linked Mortality Files. Findings are based on in-home interviews with 25,593 linkage-eligible noninstitutionalized respondents aged 65 and over who were enrolled in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare during the year following the interview. Among them, 1,100 died during the year following the interview, 5,456 were hospitalized with 3,490 hospitalized once, 1,192 hospitalized twice, and 774 hospitalized three or more times. Among those hospitalized, 1,491 were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days since the discharge. Both population-based and discharge-based measures are used to present the estimates. RESULTS This is the first report presenting national estimates on hospitalization, readmission, and death using NHIS data linked to the Medicare claims and death data. Among noninstitutionalized Medicare FFS beneficiaries aged 65 and over, 4.5% died in the year following the interview and 21.6% were hospitalized, with a discharge rate of 348.4 per 1,000 population. Among those who were hospitalized and discharged alive, 17.3% were readmitted within 30 days after discharge. About one-quarter of the deceased died in the hospital (including 7.1% who died during a readmission stay).