Do Medicare Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility Patients' Self-care and Mobility Outcomes Vary by Dual Eligibility Status, Race and Ethnicity, Rural Residence, Socioeconomic Status, and Living Alone?

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study is to examine whether inpatient rehabilitation facility patients' risk-adjusted functional outcomes varied with the following five social drivers of health: Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibility status, race and ethnicity, rural residence, socioeconomic status, and living alone.

DESIGN

This cohort study examined unadjusted and adjusted mobility and self-care change scores during inpatient rehabilitation facility stays for 428,710 Medicare patients with and without social drivers of health. Regression models isolated the mean marginal effect of each of the five social factors on mobility and self-care change scores after adjusting for covariates.

RESULTS

Patients with full dual status had slightly lower risk-adjusted mobility and self-care improvement (-4.5% and -3.3%, respectively) compared with patients without dual status. Patients who identified as Black, Asian, and Native Hawaiian had self-care marginal effects that were slightly lower (-4.8%, -4.1%, and -3.7%, respectively) than patients who were White. Patients living in lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods and patients who lived alone had slightly higher mobility and self-care improvement scores. Risk-adjusted marginal differences in improvement scores for patients with and without these social factors were small and did not meet the meaningfully different criteria.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, inpatient rehabilitation facility patients' risk-adjusted functional outcomes did not vary meaningfully by dual eligibility status, race or ethnicity, rural residence, socioeconomic status. or living alone.