Potentially avoidable hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders

Abstract

Managing comorbidities has been a long-standing challenge in the care of patients with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). Compared with individuals without dementia, Medicare beneficiaries with ADRD are more likely to be hospitalized, have longer hospital stays, and incur higher expenditures for their comorbidities [ [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] ]. Further, hospital admissions represent the largest component of healthcare expenditures for individuals with ADRD [ [5] , [6] ] and constitute more than half of total expenditures among the most expensive patients with prominent comorbidities [ 7 ] [7] . Additional time spent in the hospital also increases suffering and the risk of adverse events. Therefore, reducing unnecessary admissions is clearly an important and underserved need in ADRD care.