A study of over 4000 patients hospitalized for heart attack shows that patients enrolled in an HMO are over twice as likely to die while hospitalized than those in a fee-for-service plan.
“HMO enrollment was a significant predictor of death in the study of heart attack patients under age 65 admitted to southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals in 1993,” according to Paul N. Casale, M.D., of the Lancaster Heart Foundation.
He goes on to explain “After taking into consideration the type of hospital, the individual hospital, and whether the patient was treated by a cardiologist or primary care physician, the increased risk for death for HMO members was 2.16. “This is roughly twice the rate of deaths than fee-for-service patients.”
Though the study did not include medicare patients, there is no reason to believe that the HMO’s created by Medicare Advantage Plans would be run any differently than those for people under 65.
Medicare patients should remember that the reason they have been paying into the Medicare system all of their life is so that they can receive the best possible health care available when the time comes that they need it. Participating in a Medicare Advantage HMO could restrict their ability to do so causing serious prolonged health problems that could have been prevented or even preventable death.
The full report is below.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/1997/A/199700035.htm