Title: The role of home healthcare in reducing hospital readmissions and costs in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Authors: Irina Mozhaeva; Juris Barzdins

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Management and Economics, University of Latvia, Aspazijas Boulv. 5, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia ' Centre for Health Management and Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Latvia, Jelgavas Street 3, Riga, LV-1004, Latvia

Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the causal effects of post-discharge home healthcare services on hospital readmissions and public inpatient expenditure in the older myocardial infarction patient cohort. We employ individual-level administrative healthcare data and apply the dynamic difference-in-differences approach to estimate the contemporaneous and post-intervention causal effects of homecare. The results suggest that post-acute home healthcare provided to myocardial infarction survivors has a strong prolonged negative (i.e., favourable) effect on the probability of hospital readmissions and related costs. The patterns of the post-intervention effect point to considerable health improvements in patients referred to domiciliary care compared to their counterparts discharged with self-care. The indicated benefits of home healthcare provide grounds for reconsidering current eligibility criteria of this public program and expanding its coverage in the myocardial infarction patient cohort.

Keywords: home healthcare; acute myocardial infarction; readmissions; public inpatient expenditure; average treatment effect; ATE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEE.2024.137909

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, 2024 Vol.14 No.2, pp.151 - 171

Received: 29 Nov 2022
Accepted: 24 Jul 2023
Published online: 08 Apr 2024 *

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