News Report | August 21, 2016
14% Of Hospitalizations For Medicare Beneficiaries With Dementia Were Potentially Avoidable In 2013
In 2013, more than 369,000 hospital admissions were potentially avoidable for Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD); this represented about 14% of the total hospitalizations for this population. There were approximately 13,428 potentially avoidable hospitalizations (PAHs) per 100,000 population, meaning that about 10% of the 2.7 million beneficiaries with ADRD had at least one PAH. Medicare paid $2.6 billion for these potentially preventable hospitalizations. About 47% of the PAHs were for acute conditions such as bacterial pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and dehydration; the remaining 53% were for . . .