Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Why are hospitalization rates so high for Medicare beneficiaries living in long-term care facilities (i.e., skilled nursing facilities, nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities)? The first reason is obvious: they are sick. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t need to be living in these facilities in the first place. Hospitalizing sick patients is often necessary. Unnecessary…
Medicare spends a lot of money on beneficiaries living in nursing homes. How expensive are these beneficiaries: Six percent of Medicare beneficiaries spend some time in a long-term care facility, but these same beneficiaries make up 17% of total Medicare cost. Three percent of Medicare beneficiaries spent an entire year in a long-term care facilities.…
Under Medicare Part A, beneficiaries can receive coverage for care provided by skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), also known as nursing homes. Between 2000 and 2007, however, the rate of potentially avoidable re-hospitalizations for five key conditions (congestive heart failure, respiratory infection, urinary tract infection, sepsis, and electrolyte imbalance) increased from 13.7% to 18.5%. One potential explanation…
Almost 7 out of every 10 of individuals living to age 65 will require some long-term care (LTC) assistance. Of these, over one-third will spend some time in a nursing home. In general, however, the elderly strongly prefer home based LTC if possible. “Mattimore and colleagues (1997) found that 30% of elderly survey respondents would…
In Virginia, there are over one million people age 60 and older and over 90,000 Virginians age 85 and older. These figures will only grow in the upcoming decades. Thus will put increasing strain on public programs and will require service providers to reorient medical care toward providing continued, high-quality long term care services. Long…
One aspect of health reform that has received little attention is passage of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports(CLASS) Act. This act creates a long-term care (LTC) insurance program. However, the insurance plan in its current form is fairly limited. Those who require assistance with activities such as bathing, dressing, getting out of bed…