Whats the difference between data for patients over 65 and for patients of all ages?
Data for “patients over 65” means that we used the publicly available data from Medicare (MedPar) data for certain states. Data for “patients of all ages” means that we used publicly available All-Payor data for the states where it’s available. Medicare patient data is an excellent basis for comparing hospitals for most diagnoses or procedures. However, some diagnoses or procedures aren’t common among Medicare patients, since they are generally age 65 and older or disabled. These diagnoses or procedures include Gynecology, Mothers & Babies, Pediatric Conditions, and Pediatric Surgery. Therefore, the actual results for outcome measures (i.e., mortality, complications) depend on whether data for “patients over 65” or patients of all ages was used. For an apples-to-apples comparison, members may not be able to compare hospitals from different states if one state uses data for patients of all ages and the other state has data only for Medicare patients. Therefore, depending on the procedur
