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Inpatient Rehabilitation Utilization for Medicare Beneficiaries With Multiple Sclerosis
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 08/09/2012
Clinical Article
Morley MA et al. – While beneficiaries with multiple sclerosis (MS) account for a small proportion of the Medicare population, the benefit is important to those who qualify for Medicare coverage. This study illustrates the differences between the subpopulation of beneficiaries with MS and other Medicare beneficiaries. The findings show that populations with MS had less functional improvement than other Medicare populations using the inpatient rehabilitation setting. Higher rates of depression within the MS Medicare population was a secondary finding that presents another important consideration for rehabilitation service needs for this group.
Methods- Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosis of MS who received inpatient rehabilitation during the 2007 calendar year (n=4669) and a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries without MS (n=14,397).
- Change in functional impairment levels between admission and discharge to inpatient rehabilitation and length of stay.
- There were several differences in beneficiary characteristics between the 2 groups.
- Beneficiaries with MS had lower change in functional levels (-3.3 points on the FIM) and longer length of stay (0.4d).