Publications [#238780] of Frank A. Sloan

Journal Articles

1. Valvona, J; Sloan, F, Rising rates of surgery among the elderly., Health affairs (Project Hope), vol. 4 no. 3 (January, 1985), pp. 108-119 [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/04/19)

   Abstract:
   Cost-containment efforts of Medicare as well as other insurers have been frequently, if not mostly, oriented toward restraining the increase of price rather than the quantity of services provided. Utilization patterns have not been very well described, except at a high level of aggregation, and reasons for the variation observed have not been adequatly analyzed. Lack of policy emphasis on utilization control is understandable. Requiring additional cost sharing of beneficiaries is widely seen as inequitable and outright rationing carries a bad connotation. There has been a notable increase in consumption of both hospital and physician services by the elderly on a population-adjusted basis. Between 1977 and 1982, hospital discharges per person age sixty-five and over grew by 12 percent while the corrsponding discharge rate for the under sixty-five population was unchanged. The number of surgical and other procedures performed on the elderly increased dramatically in absolute terms, per hospital discharge, and per capita. Visits to physicians remained unchanged. Trends for an earlier period largely reveal the same picture.