Importance: Although hospice care has been covered by health insurance for the purpose of improving the quality of life of patients with terminal cancer as well as their caregivers, few studies have evaluated the outcomes of the policy to cover home-based hospice care services.
Objective: To investigate the changes in the place of death of patients with cancer after the introduction of insurance-covered, home-based hospice care services in Korea.
Design, setting, and participants: This cohort study used data from February 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, from the Causes of Death Statistics database, released annually by Statistics Korea, which contains information on all deaths in the country. Individuals who died of cancer, a representative hospice-eligible disease, were assigned to the case group, and those who died of dementia, a non-hospice-eligible disease, were assigned to the control group. A total of 218 522 individuals constituted the study population.
Exposure: Because the Korean Health Insurance Service had begun covering home-based hospice care services on September 1, 2020, and the last follow-up date was December 31, 2021, the follow-up periods for before and after intervention were 31 months and 16 months, respectively (preintervention period: February 1, 2018, to August 31, 2020; postintervention period: September 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021).
Main outcomes and measures: The place of death was categorized as a binary variable according to whether it was the person's own home or not. Comparative interrupted time-series models with segmented regression were applied to analyze the time trend and its change in outcomes.
Results: Of the 218 522 deaths eligible for the analysis (mean [SD] age at death, 78.6 [8.8] years; 130 435 men [59.7%]), 207 459 were due to cancer, and 11 063 were due to dementia. Immediately after the introduction of home-based hospice care, the rate of home deaths was 24.5% higher for patients with cancer than for those with dementia (estimate, 1.245 [95% CI, 1.030-1.504]; P = .02). The difference in the level change between cancer deaths and dementia deaths, on intervention, was more pronounced for those living in rural areas (estimate, 1.320 [95% CI, 1.118-1.558]; P = .001). In addition, a higher educational level was associated with a larger difference in the immediate effect size due to home-based hospice care (low educational level: estimate, 1.205 [95% CI, 1.025-1.416]; P = .02; middle educational level: estimate, 1.307 [95% CI, 0.987-1.730], P = .06; high educational level: estimate, 1.716 [95% CI, 0.932-3.159]; P = .08).
Conclusions and relevance: In this cohort study exploring the changes in the place of death for patients with cancer after the insurance mandates for home-based hospice care in Korea, the probability of patients with cancer dying in their own homes increased after the intervention. This finding suggests the need to broaden the extent of home-based hospice care to honor the autonomy of individuals with terminal illness and improve their quality of death.