Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries Had Greater Increases In Hospital Stays Between 2017 & 2023 Than Traditional Medicaid Beneficiaries

The mean length of stay (LOS) for hospital admissions for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries increased from 6.0 to 7.1 days, while LOS for traditional Medicare beneficiaries increased from 5.8 days to 6.3 days in a recent study of claims from 2017 through the third quarter of 2023. The longer hospital LOS for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries, an estimated 1.8 million additional bed-days, would be the equivalent of 288,000 admissions with an average LOS, the researchers found.

Possible explanations for longer hospitalizations for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could be tied to difficulties in discharging people in a . . .