section_path: Frailty/Care and costs
section_name: Care and costs
paragraph_text: Care and costs
  
  Frail people require a high level of care. Medical advances have made it possible to extend life, or "postpone death", at old age for years. This added time costs many frail people "prolonged sickness, dependence, pain, and suffering".
  
  According to a study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the rate of emergency department visits was consistently highest among patients ages 85 years and older in 2006–2011 in the United States. Additionally, patients aged 65+ had the highest percentage of hospital stays for adults with multiple chronic conditions but the second highest percentage of hospital costs in 2003–2014.
  
  These final years are also costly in economic terms. One out of every four Medicare dollars is spent on the frail in their last year of life... in attempts to postpone death.
  
  Medical treatments in the final days are not only economically costly, they are often unnecessary or even harmful. Nortin Hadler, M.D. warns against the tendency to medicalize and overtreat the frail. In her Choosing Medical Care in Old Age, Michael R. Gillick M.D. argues that appropriate medical treatment for the frail is not the same as for the robust. The frail are vulnerable to "being tipped over" by any physical stress put on the system such as medical interventions.
  
  In addition to everyday care, frail elderly people and others with disabilities are particularly vulnerable during natural disasters. They may be unable or unwilling to evacuate to avoid a hurricane or wildfire.