Table 2.
Characteristics of Fee-for-Service Medicare Patients Hospitalized for COPD during December 2006 to November 2017 in the United States
| HRRP* Periods | Preannouncement (December 2006 to March 2010) | Announcement |
Implementation (October 2014 to November 2017) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2010 to November 2011 | January 2013 to August 2014 | |||
| Unique patients | 891,831 | 523,619 | 510,344 | 935,200 |
| All admissions | 1,911,177 | 1,025,183 | 942,435 | 1,938,060 |
| Admissions of patients ≥65 yr old | 1,523,008 | 801,033 | 745,087 | 1,518,414 |
| Unique patients, n (%) | ||||
| Sex | ||||
| M | 515,242 (57.7) | 303,216 (57.9) | 299,071 (58.6) | 536,426 (57.3) |
| F | 376,589 (42.2) | 220,403 (42.0) | 211,273 (41.4) | 398,774 (42.6) |
| Race, n (%) | ||||
| White | 781,913 (87.6) | 454,012 (86.7) | 439,385 (86.1) | 803,748 (85.9) |
| Black | 747,36 (8.3) | 482,81 (9.2) | 484,86 (9.5) | 896,04 (9.5) |
| Hispanic | 16,889 (1.8) | 9,923 (1.9) | 9,588 (1.8) | 16,073 (1.7) |
| Other | 17,557 (1.9) | 10,983 (2.1) | 11,929 (2.3) | 22,176 (2.3) |
| Unknown | 736 (0.08) | 420 (0.08) | 956 (0.19) | 3,599 (0.38) |
| Dual eligibility, n (%)† | ||||
| No | 675,864 (75.7) | 391,682 (74.8) | 381,921 (74.8) | 703,154 (75.1) |
| Yes | 215,967 (24.2) | 131,937 (25.2) | 128,423 (25.1) | 232,046 (24.8) |
| Age, yr‡ | ||||
| Mean (±SD) | 77.49 (7.4) | 77.34 (7.4) | 77.23 (7.5) | 77.24 (7.6) |
| Age range, yr, n (%) | ||||
| 65–70 | 173,541 (19.4) | 104,921 (20.04) | 103,972 (20.3) | 193,891 (20.7) |
| 70–75 | 192,603 (21.6) | 118,479 (22.6) | 119,997 (23.5) | 220,873 (23.6) |
| 75–80 | 195,443 (21.9) | 111,004 (21.2) | 106,767 (20.9) | 195,279 (20.8) |
| 80–85 | 173,427 (19.4) | 97,453 (18.6) | 88,429 (17.3) | 156,002 (16.6) |
| >85 | 156,817 (17.5) | 91,762 (17.5) | 91,179 (17.8) | 169,155 (18.09) |
| Chronic condition§ | ||||
| Mean (±SD) | 6.56 (4.4) | 7.47 (4.8) | 8.34 (5.5) | 10.23 (5.8) |
| Chronic condition range, n (%) | ||||
| ≤5 | 455,890 (51.1) | 225,481 (43.06) | 194,969 (38.2) | 209,914 (22.4) |
| 6–10 | 277,138 (31.08) | 176,353 (33.6) | 168,331 (32.9) | 343,796 (36.7) |
| >10 | 158,803 (17.8) | 121,785 (23.2) | 147,044 (28.8) | 381,490 (40.7) |
| Previous year COPD admission, n (%) | ||||
| No | 780,193 (87.4) | 458,723 (87.6) | 450,248 (88.2) | 819,971 (87.6) |
| Yes | 111,638 (12.5) | 64,896 (12.3) | 60,096 (11.7) | 115,229 (12.3) |
| History of mechanical ventilation, n (%) | ||||
| No | 765,297 (85.8) | 443,884 (84.7) | 418,597 (82.02) | 745,976 (79.7) |
| Yes | 126,534 (14.1) | 79,735 (15.2) | 91,747 (17.9) | 189,224 (20.2) |
| Obstructive sleep apnea, n (%) | ||||
| No | 825,849 (92.6) | 465,054 (88.8) | 429,831 (84.2) | 868,196 (92.8) |
| Yes | 65,982 (7.4) | 58,565 (11.1) | 80,513 (15.7) | 67,004 (7.1) |
Definition of abbreviations: COPD = chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; HRRP = Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.
*
A single admission was randomly sampled for each patient, in each period.
†
Dual eligibility was defined as Medicare coverage in the month of admission.
‡
Age was calculated on admission date.
§
Chronic conditions and previous year COPD admission looked at the 12 months before admission.