Trends and patterns in place of death for Medicare enrollees

Two changes in the Medicare program in 1983 may have affected where aged persons die—the change from retrospective hospital reimbursement to the prospective payment system and passage of the Medicare hospice benefit. Patterns and trends in where people die—hospitals, other institutions such as nursing homes, decedents' homes, and other places—for persons 65 years of age or over from 1980 through 1986 are examined. The proportion of deaths in hospitals declined somewhat after implementation of prospective payment. The hospice benefit may have caused the shift among cancer patients away from hospital deaths toward deaths at home.