The Institute commissioned ATI Advisory to explore the potential benefits of earlier election to hospice for eligible patients in the final eight weeks of life. Through their analysis, ATI found if those Medicare beneficiaries were to enter hospice five days earlier, Medicare could save between $1.16 billion to $1.46 billion per year.
This analysis support the idea that a modest change in electing hospice sooner could create overall savings for Medicare at the same time, critically, improving the patient care experience and family satisfaction.