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Full-Text Articles in Palliative Care
End-Of-Life Healthcare Use Of Medicare Patients With Melanoma Based On Patient Characteristics And Year Of Death, Rebecca N. Hutchinson, F. Lee Lucas, Kathleen Fairfield
End-Of-Life Healthcare Use Of Medicare Patients With Melanoma Based On Patient Characteristics And Year Of Death, Rebecca N. Hutchinson, F. Lee Lucas, Kathleen Fairfield
Journal of Maine Medical Center
Background: Many cancer patients receive overly-intensive care at end-of-life (EOL), despite recognition that this is a marker of poor quality. There is limited knowledge about care received by patients dying with melanoma.
Objective: We characterized healthcare utilization during EOL and patient characteristics associated with variations in care. We also described how utilization changed over time.
Methods: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database to identify 9099 melanoma patients aged 65+ at diagnosis between 2000 and 2009, who died by 12/31/2010. We included patients enrolled in Medicare part A and B six-months prior to diagnosis and not in managed …