Events Associated With Changes in Reliance on the Veterans Health Administration Among Medicare-eligible Veterans

Objectives:
We can learn something about how Veterans value the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) versus community providers by observing Veterans’ choices between VHA and Medicare providers after they turn 65. For a cohort of Veterans who were newly age-eligible for Medicare, we estimated the change in VHA reliance (VHA outpatient visits divided by total VHA and Medicare visits) associated with specific events: receiving a life-threatening diagnosis, having a Medicare-paid hospitalization, or moving further from the VHA.
Research Design:
A longitudinal cohort study of VHA and Medicare administrative data.
Subjects:
A total of 5932 VHA users who completed a health survey in 1999 and became age-eligible for Medicare from 1998 to 2000 were followed through 2016.
Principal Findings:
More Veterans chose to rely on the VHA than Medicare (64% vs. 36.%). For a VHA-reliant Veteran, a Medicare-paid hospital stay was associated with a decrease of 7.8 percentage points (pps) (P

Source: Medical Care - July 30, 2020 Category: Health Management Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research