Table 1.
Patient Characteristics and Patters of Service Use for Fee-for-service Older Medicare Beneficiaries with a Dementia Diagnosis (2012)
| Total | Long-term care | Community | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of beneficiaries, n (%) | 2,598,719 (100) | 677,048 (26) | 1,921,671 (74) |
| Female (%) | 1,701,995 (65.5) | 489,515 (72.3) | 1,212,480 (63.1) |
| Age in years, mean (SD) | 82.4 (7.8) | 84.24 (8.0) | 81.71 (7.7) |
| 65-75, n (%) | 534,280 (20.6) | 104,061 (15.4) | 430,219 (22.4) |
| 76-84, n (%) | 959,722 (36.9) | 214,741 (31.7) | 744,981 (38.8) |
| ≥85, n (%) | 1,104,717 (42.5) | 358,246 (52.9) | 746,471 (38.8) |
| Race | |||
| White, n (%) | 2,144,316 (82.5) | 550,486 (81.3) | 1,593,830 (82.9) |
| Black, n (%) | 246,130 (9.5) | 79,357 (11.7) | 166,773 (8.7) |
| Hispanic, n (%) | 133,800 (5.2) | 32,017 (4.7) | 101,783 (5.3) |
| Other, n (%) | 74,473 (2.9) | 15,188 (2.2) | 59,285 (3.1) |
| Dual Eligible * , n (%) | 924,035 (35.6) | 524,089 (77.4) | 399,946 (20.8) |
| Charlson count †, mean (SD) | 2.38 (1.9) | 2.8 (1.9) | 2.24 (1.9) |
| Annual mortality, n (%) | 469,516 (18.1) | 173,348 (25.6) | 296,168 (15.4) |
| Hospitalizations, mean per person (SD) | 0.9 (1.3) | 0.89 (1.4) | 0.91 (1.3) |
| Unique Providers of Visits, mean per person (SD) | 4.08 (2.8) | 3.67 (2.5) | 4.23 (2.9) |
| Ambulatory Visits | |||
| To any provider, mean (SD) | 13.1 (11.0) | 17.06 (14) | 11.71 (9.3) |
| To predominant provider, mean (SD) | 6.7 (6.0) | 9.8 (8.2) | 5.6 (4.5) |
| To any primary care provider, mean (SD) | 8.39 (8.2) | 13.17(11.2) | 6.7 (6.0) |
| To any specialist, mean (SD) | 4.18 (5.8) | 3.1 (5.7) | 4.56 (5.8) |
*
Dual eligible = eligible for both Medicare & Medicaid,
†
Charlson count = Charlson Comorbidity Index score. All comparisons among columns have p values <0.001.