Research question
What are the end-of-life healthcare costs among older adults living with HIV who are enrolled in Medicare, and which categories contribute most to those costs?
Data and methods
The study used a 5% national Medicare claims sample. It identified beneficiaries with HIV who died between 2012 and 2020, were at least 66 years old at death and met continuous-enrollment criteria. Costs were assessed over the three months before death and standardized to 2020 US dollars.
Selected findings
Among 724 eligible beneficiaries, median total end-of-life cost was $38,360.54. Inpatient care was the largest cost component, followed by outpatient and prescription-drug costs. More than half of the cohort had home-health or hospice use during the end-of-life period.
Why it matters
The analysis quantifies the payer burden of end-of-life care in an aging population living with HIV and provides a basis for further work examining cost predictors and the quality of end-of-life care.
Source
ISPOR 2024 presentation record (EE94)