GOVERNMENTFall-related injuries cost Medicare billionsStudy suggests that substantial savings could be gained by focusing on prevention.By Markian Hawryluk, amednews staff. Dec. 16, 2002. Washington -- Medicare is spending billions to treat preventable injuries incurred by aging beneficiaries, according to a study published in the November-December Health Affairs. Researchers, led by Christine Bishop, PhD, a professor at Brandeis University's Schneider Institute for Health Policy, Waltham, Mass., found that Medicare spent more than $8 billion in 1999 to treat injuries to seniors, accounting for 6% of Medicare fee-for-service claims for these beneficiaries. One in five seniors in fee-for-service Medicare was treated for an injury in 1999 at a cost of $1,272 per incident, the study said. "Medicare savings would be substantial if even half of spending attributable to injury could be avoided or mitigated through prevention," the researchers said. They suggested that many of the injury-related costs could be saved through better use of preventive measures. "Although gerontologists and other practitioners have designed and demonstrated effective interventions to reduce the risk of injury in the elderly, these interventions are not widely disseminated," researchers said. Part of the problem is that, although Medicare will pay for treatment and some preventive services, most approaches to reducing injuries lie outside the purview of most plan coverage. Home assessments and modifications, assistive devices for activities of daily living, gait and strength training, and protective devices can mitigate the risk of falls and fractures. The researchers recommended focusing on fractures in particular because of their high cost and prevalence. Fractures accounted for two-thirds of the injury-related spending, with total claims of $5.5 billion.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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