Medical Spending in France: Concentration, Persistence and Evolution before Death

International audienceThis paper studies medical spending in France from three perspectives: concentration, persistence, and evolution before death. We use claims data from a representative sample of over 500,000 individuals covered by the National Health insurance scheme, from 2008 to 2013. These data contain individual-level information (gender, age, date of death), some clinical information and detailed information on each medical treatment (inpatient, outpatient, drugs). Medical spending in France is highly concentrated. In 2013, 10 per cent of the population accounted for 62 per cent of all health care spending. In addition, the concentration of medical expenditure increased between 2008 and 2013. The concentration of insurance reimbursement, however, is even greater, indicating that French social health insurance redistributes income from the healthy to the unhealthy. The serial correlation of health care expenditures appears relatively high between adjacent years, but not surprisingly decreases over time. Decedents have high medical expenditures – on average, eight times those of survivors – and resources devoted to health care in the last three years of life represent, on average, 22 per cent of lifetime medical spending. Decedents’ expenditures decrease with age after 55 years old

Intensity of Care, Expenditure, and Place of Death in French Women in the Year Before Their Death From Breast Cancer: A Population-Based Study

International audienceHealth care utilization of women with breast cancer (BC) during the last year of life, together with the causes and place of death and associated expenditure have been poorly described. Women treated for BC (2014-2015) with BC as a cause of death in 2015 and covered by the national health insurance general scheme (77% of the population) were identified in the French health data system (n = 6,696, mean age: 68.7 years, SD ± 15). Almost 70% died in short-stay hospitals (SSH), 4% in hospital-at-home (HaH), 9% in Rehab, 5% in skilled nursing homes (SNH) and 12% at home. One-third presented cardiovascular comorbidity. During the last year, 90% were hospitalized at least once in SSH, 25% in Rehab, 13% in HaH and 71% received hospital palliative care (HPC), but only 5% prior to their end-of-life stay. During the last month, 85% of women were admitted at least once to a SSH, 42% via the emergency department, 10% to an ICU, 24% received inpatient chemotherapy and 18% received outpatient chemotherapy. Among the 83% of women who died in hospital, independent factors for HPC use were cardiovascular comorbidity (adjusted odds ratio, aOR: 0.83; 95%CI: 0.72–0.95) and, in the 30 days before death, at least one SNH stay (aOR: 0.52; 95%CI: 0.36-0.76), ICU stay (aOR: 0.36; 95%CI: 0.30-0.43), inpatient chemotherapy (aOR: 0.55; 95%CI: 0.48-0.63), outpatient chemotherapy (aOR: 0.60; 95%CI: 0.51-0.70), death in Rehab (aOR: 1.4; 95%CI: 1.05-1.86) or HAH (aOR: 4.5; 95%CI: 2.47-8.1) vs SSH. Overall mean expenditure reimbursed per woman was €38,734 and €42,209 for those with PC. Women with inpatient or outpatient chemotherapy during the last month had lower rates of HPC, suggesting declining use of HPC before death. This study also indicates SSH-centered management with increased use of HPC in HaH and Rehab units and decreased access to HPC in SNH

Cancer and end of life: the management provided during the year and the month preceding death in 2015 and causes of death in France

International audiencePurpose: The management of cancer patients at the end of life in France and their causes of death are not well known.Methods: People managed for cancer in 2014-2015, who died in 2015 and who were covered by the national health insurance general scheme (77% of the French population) were selected from the national health data system in order to analyze the health care reimbursed during the year and the month before their death.Results: This study included 125,497 people (mean age 73 years, SD 12.5) managed for cancer: colorectal: 12%, lung: 18%, prostate: 9%, breast: 8% and other: 62%. Almost 67% of people died in short-stay hospitals (SSH), 8% died in rehabilitation units (Rehab), 4% died in hospital at home (HaH), 5% died in skilled nursing homes (SNH) and 15% died at home or another place. The mean annual duration of all types of hospitalization was 70 days (SD 66) and 59% of patients had received hospital palliative care (HPC). During the last month of life, 42% of people had attended an emergency department at least once and people who had received HPC were less often admitted to an intensive care unit (10% versus 23%, 15% overall). During the month before death, 17% of patients had received intravenous chemotherapy (lung 23%, breast 21%) and 9% had received a pharmacy reimbursement for another form of chemotherapy (prostate 24%, breast 19%). The main cause of death was a tumour for 81% of patients: after management of lung cancer in 91% of cases, breast cancer in 81% of cases, colorectal cancer in 76% of cases and prostate cancer in 63% of cases.Conclusions: Cancer management and death mostly occurred in SSH in France. Cancer patients frequently attend the emergency department and frequently receive chemotherapy during the last month of life. These data continue to contrast with those observed in Scandinavian- and English-speaking countries, in which management of the end of life at home is preferred

Two morbidity indices developed in a nationwide population permitted performant outcome-specific severity adjustment

Objective: The objective of the study was to develop and validate two outcome-specific morbidity indices in a population-based setting: the Mortality-Related Morbidity Index (MRMI) predictive of all-cause mortality and the Expenditure-Related Morbidity Index (ERMI) predictive of health care expenditure. Study Design and Setting: A cohort including all beneficiaries of the main French health insurance scheme aged 65 years or older on December 31, 2013 (N = 7,672,111), was randomly split into a development population for index elaboration and a validation population for predictive performance assessment. Age, gender, and selected lists of conditions identified through standard algorithms available in the French health insurance database (SNDS) were used as predictors for 2-year mortality and 2-year health care expenditure in separate models. Overall performance and calibration of the MRMI and ERMI were measured and compared to various versions of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Results: The MRMI included 16 conditions, was more discriminant than the age-adjusted CCI (c-statistic: 0.825 [95% confidence interval: 0.824–0.826] vs. 0.800 [0.799–0.801]), and better calibrated. The ERMI included 19 conditions, explained more variance than the cost-adapted CCI (21.8% vs. 13.0%), and was better calibrated. Conclusion: The proposed MRMI and ERMI indices are performant tools to account for health-state severity according to outcomes of interest