Table 4. Percent Distribution of Home Health Users, by Prior Hospital Stay: Fiscal Years 1997 and 1999.

Hospital Stay	Distribution of Users		Number of Users			Visits per User
	1997	1999	Adjusted 19971	1999	Percent Change	1997	1999	Percent Change
	Percent		In Thousands
Total	100	100	31.8	25.2	-21	79	46	-41
Prior Hospital Stays2
Users With3	46	56	14.5	14.1	-3	46	34	-26
Users Without	39	36	12.5	9.0	-28	68	39	-42
Unknown4	15	8	4.8	2.1	-56	204	156	-24

¹Estimated number of users in 1997 if enrollment were at 1999 level.

²Defined as Medicare-covered inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility care within 14 days of the beginning of a home health episode, where an episode is defined by a 60-day gap in service (and must overlap with designated year; but need not begin or end within it).

³Because home health users with multiple episodes were categorized as having a prior hospital stay if any episode occured after a hospital stay some visits for users with prior hospital stay are not necessarily part of an episode with a recent prior hospital stay.

⁴Unknown indicates users whose prior hospital stay status could not be determined within the data observation period because either the home health episode began more than 6-1/2 months prior to the beginning of the fiscal year, or they were newly eligible for Medicare when they began using Medicare home health.

SOURCE: Komisar, H. L., Georgetown University, 2002.