Table 6.

Spending and Utilization for 18-Month Lower Extremity Prosthetic Episode (2007–2010 and 2011–2014)

Care setting	2007–2010 analysis			2011–2014 analysis update
	n = 428 Matched pairs			n = 545 Matched pairs
	Study	Comparison	Difference	Study	Comparison	Difference
Physician	$7792	$11,883	-$4092*	$8270	$9920	-$1649
DME	$18,653	$2537	$16,116*	$15,323	$5018	$10,305*
Prosthetics Only: L5000 - L5999	–	–	–	$9694	$1782	$7912*
Acute Care Hospital / Other Inpatient	$18,080	$28,276	-$10196*	$15,529	$19,851	-$4321*
Long Term Care Hospital	$1408	$4102	-$2694**	$1445	$4017	-$2571*
Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF)	$2603	$2000	$603**	$3476	$3415	$61
Outpatient	$9373	$7291	$2082*	$8601	$8649	-$49
Skilled Nursing Facility	$8386	$8821	-$435	$5783	$6630	-$847
Home Health	$6181	$5692	$489	$5049	$4764	$285
Hospice	$715	$1572	-$857**	$104	$825	-$721*
Total Part D Drug Spending	–	–	–	$5297	$5806	-$508
Total	$73,191	$72,175	$1015	$68,877	$68,893	-$16
Average number of therapy visits	56.10	28.90	27.20*	26.86	17.97	8.89*
Average number of fractures and falls	0.90	0.72	0.18	0.46	0.41	0.05
Average number of inpatient admissions	1.18	1.51	−0.33	1.23	1.54	−0.31*
Length of stay for inpatient admissions (days)	–	–	–	7.53	11.44	−3.91*
Average number of emergency room admissions	1.55	2.10	−0.55*	2.14	2.03	0.11
Average number of IRF admissions	–	–	–	0.17	0.14	0.02
Length of stay for IRF admissions (days)	1.61	1.19	0.42	2.16	2.10	0.07

* Difference is significant at α = 0.05

** The difference in spending between the study and comparison groups for IRF, LTCH, Other Inpatient and Hospice settings combined was significant at α = 0.05

Source: Dobson | DaVanzo analysis of custom cohort Standard Analytic Files (2007–2010 and 2011–2014) for Medicare beneficiaries who received O&P services from January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009 or January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013 (and matched comparisons), according to custom cohort database definition