Comorbidity, Age, and Hospital Use among Elderly Medicare Patients

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a retrospective study of elderly Medicare patients (N = 8,915) discharged from New York City hospitals prior to the implementation of the Medicare Prospective Payment System in New York State. Its purpose was to investigate physical comorbidity, mental comorbidity, age, and other factors for their relationship with hospital use. Study findings suggest that age, as used in the diagnosis-related group (DRG) classification scheme, is less powerful than comorbidity as a predictor of hospital use. Dementia, which is not recognized as a valid comorbid condition by the DRG system, was also found to be positively associated with use.