Most frail breast cancer survivors lack Medicare home care

Researchers built a "frailty score" from Medicare claims, using diagnoses and medical equipment, and calibrated it to the frailty index from OASIS in-home assessments. Frailty here describes accumulated health problems and functional limitations such as such as difficulty bathing or dressing, trouble walking, falls, memory problems, incontinence and exhaustion. Then they applied the frailty score to every survivor, including those never assessed for home health, and checked each year whether survivors with high frailty used Medicare home health care. The study measured whether care was used, not whether people qualified for it.

Source:

University of Maryland

Journal reference: