Descriptive statistics decompose standardized cost per episode into duration, intensity, and mix components, isolating variation due to each component.
Regression analysis is used to predict intensity.
The results are sensitive to treatment of death and discharge to hospital as censoring events. Further analysis is ongoing. Duration analysis can be used to analyze home health duration. Actual risk may be different for these components, with the home health agency much more in control of one than of others in certain situations. It may therefore be desirable for a payment system to specify both duration and intensity dimensions, and to pay for each on a different basis.