29 PERCENT OF MEDICARE GOES TO DYING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993                   TAG: 9304150083
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short
29 PERCENT OF MEDICARE GOES TO DYING
Nearly 29 percent of all Medicare funds are spent taking care of elderly people during their last year of life, a study found.
This figure has changed little since the late 1970s. Contrary to some speculation, the cost of dying does not appear to be driving up the nation's medical bills faster than other kinds of care.
The study compares costs in 1976 and 1988, when the cost of elderly care rose dramatically.
"There is no evidence, however, that increased costs for persons in the final year of life are a special problem, different in magnitude from the overall growth of Medicare expenditures," the authors wrote.
The review was conducted by James D. Lubitz and Gerald F. Riley of the Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore. It is published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Among the findings:

Medical costs in the last year of life rose from an average of $3,488 in 1976 to $13,316 in 1988.

The last year of life accounted for 28.2 percent of all Medicare payments in 1976, 30.8 percent in 1980, 27.4 percent in 1985 and 28.6 percent in 1988.

Hospital bills made up 70 percent of dying people's medical costs.

Half of the medical expenses in the last year of life were incurred in the final two months.
"Apparently the same forces that have acted to increase overall Medicare expenditures - inflation, new techniques and greater intensity of care - have affected care both for decedents and for survivors," they wrote.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB