Spring Break
Lab researches Medicare
by Holly Leighton
News | 11/6/07
Posted online at 9:33 PM EST on 11/5/07
/ Last updated at 4:06 AM EST on 11/5/07
When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wanted to know why so few people over age 65 were utilizing the free health care provided for them under the Medicare program, Prof. Donald Shepard (Heller) took up the challenge.
Shepard and a team of 12 colleagues, including 10 from Brandeis, such asProfs. Jeffrey Prottas, Jose Suaya andWilliam Stason from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, worked for seven years on a research program sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that explored the cost benefit and effectiveness of Medicare.
The study began in 2000 and culminated with his presentation at a conference hosted by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation from Oct. 18 to 21 and the publishing of the paper.
Shepard studied a Medicare program called Cardiac Rehabilitation to see if the program was beneficial to people suffering from heart disease. The program combines various changes in lifestyle that improve the patients' condition post-heart trauma, he said.
To determine the cost effectiveness of the program, Shepard used an equation that looked at the costs, from 1997, of CR per patient receiving Medicare benefits and the net improvement of every year of good health they experienced after the program.
The group found that the net cost, for figures used from 1997, was $11,181 paid by Medicare, while the average net improvement was 1.15 years, Shepard explained. When these terms were divided, he said, the cost effectiveness came to $10,300 per year of life saved.
The accepted value used as a threshold of effectiveness is $50,000, so a 2003 evaluation that found that the cost-effectiveness of the program has increased, to $6,109 per year of life saved, shows how beneficial the program is, Shepard said.
Cost effectiveness is defined by the quality of the care and the cost of the care, Shepard said. Despite the benefits of the program, studies show that in 2001, approximately 13.9 percent of heart patients over 65 used this service.
Shepard and a team of 12 colleagues, including 10 from Brandeis, such asProfs. Jeffrey Prottas, Jose Suaya andWilliam Stason from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, worked for seven years on a research program sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that explored the cost benefit and effectiveness of Medicare.
The study began in 2000 and culminated with his presentation at a conference hosted by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation from Oct. 18 to 21 and the publishing of the paper.
Shepard studied a Medicare program called Cardiac Rehabilitation to see if the program was beneficial to people suffering from heart disease. The program combines various changes in lifestyle that improve the patients' condition post-heart trauma, he said.
To determine the cost effectiveness of the program, Shepard used an equation that looked at the costs, from 1997, of CR per patient receiving Medicare benefits and the net improvement of every year of good health they experienced after the program.
The group found that the net cost, for figures used from 1997, was $11,181 paid by Medicare, while the average net improvement was 1.15 years, Shepard explained. When these terms were divided, he said, the cost effectiveness came to $10,300 per year of life saved.
The accepted value used as a threshold of effectiveness is $50,000, so a 2003 evaluation that found that the cost-effectiveness of the program has increased, to $6,109 per year of life saved, shows how beneficial the program is, Shepard said.
Cost effectiveness is defined by the quality of the care and the cost of the care, Shepard said. Despite the benefits of the program, studies show that in 2001, approximately 13.9 percent of heart patients over 65 used this service.
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