Sensitivity of Nursing Home Cost Comparisons to Method of Dementia Diagnosis Ascertainment

Table 5

Dementia versus nondementia cost ratios by method of ascertainment by whether admitted to NH under a Medicare qualifying stay (MQS).

Adjusted cost ratios (95%confidenceintervals)^a: dementia versus non-dementia
	Overall Costs PPM		Costs in the first 90 days
	MQS	Not MQS	MQS	Not MQS
Panel	0.95 (0.82, 1.09)	0.43 (0.30, 0.60)	0.99 (0.89, 1.11)	0.51 (0.34, 0.74)
Chart	0.93 (0.81, 1.08)	0.50 (0.37, 0.68)	0.94 (0.84, 1.06)	0.52 (0.39, 0.68)
Medicare	0.94 (0.78, 1.12)	0.68 (0.48, 0.97)	0.96 (0.83, 1.10)	0.65 (0.49, 0.87)
Chart or Medicare	0.99 (0.88, 1.12)	0.55 (0.41, 0.75)	0.99 (0.90, 1.09)	0.57 (0.44. 0.73)
Chart or Medicare or Panel	0.93 (0.82, 1.04)	0.47 (0.32, 0.67)	0.97 (0.88, 1.06)	0.55 (0.40, 0.75)

^aCosts inflated to 1997 dollars, models from GEE assuming Gamma distribution. Costs are those incurred in the nursing home up to 24 months after admission and only include those periods in which the patient was in the initial nursing home. Models adjusted for age, gender, race, marital, ADL, chairfast, bedfast, DCG/HCC, and Medicaid status at admission.