Veterans’ use of medical services study

A new report examines the patterns of use of DVA-funded health services by the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) gold cardholders.

Comparisons in health service use are made between gold cardholders living in permanent residential aged care (RAC) and gold cardholders of the same age and sex living in the community for the years 2001–2002, 2002–2003 and 2003–2004.

This analysis was made possible through the linking of DVA and RAC data sets.

The analysis is generally restricted to gold cardholders aged 70 years or older. The health services examined are:

. general practitioner (GP), including local medical officer (LMO), consultations

. medical specialist consultations

. pharmaceutical use under the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS)

. hospital use.

Key findings

. The largest difference in health service use between gold cardholders living in the community and those living in residential aged care occurs in the usage of medical specialists. More than three-quarters of gold cardholders living in the community consulted a specialist in 2003–2004 compared with less than half of gold cardholders living in residential aged care.

. Older gold cardholders living in the community used hospitals more often and spent more time in them during the year than their younger counterparts. Hospital use and time spent in hospitals did not change markedly with age for gold cardholders living in residential aged care.

. Gold cardholders who died during the year were far more likely to experience high health service use or a hospital visit than other gold cardholders. This effect was larger for gold cardholders living in the community than for those living in residential aged care in relation to specialists and hospitals, but not for general practitioners.

. A move into residential aged care during the year was associated with high health service usage among gold cardholders.

. Death at the end of a hospital episode was associated with longer hospital episodes, particularly for gold cardholders living in the community.

. Hospital episodes for gold cardholders who moved into residential aged care during the year were nearly three times longer than hospital episodes for gold cardholders who did not enter residential aged care.