Dive Brief:
- An analysis of American Hospital Directory data from Modern Healthcare found patient discharges from 2013 to 2014 fell 8.4%.
- In total, 28.6 million individuals were discharged in the 2014 fiscal year, according to Modern Healthcare.
- Alaska saw the largest decline, falling 52.4% from 2013 to 2014.
Dive Insight:
In addition to Alaska’s decline, Modern Healthcare reports Washington state held the largest of such declines in the continental U.S., with a 32% decline from 2013 to 2014.
Steve Valentine, a president of healthcare management consulting firm, told Modern Healthcare that discharge rates could be affected by factors such as a change in a state's reporting process. Other factors that could lead to such a change include:
- Health of a state’s population;
- Payment shift from volume-based to value-based model; and
- Demographics of hospital discharges.