Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
As the U.S. ages, more and more individuals have chronic conditions or functional limitations which may at some point require senior housing, such as independent or assisted living facilities and nursing homes. The question is, will individuals be able to afford this type of housing? According to a paper by Pearson et al. (2019), the…
In the case of elderly care services in Sweden, the answer is ‘yes’. In Bergman et al. (2016), the authors… assemble a large data set on elderly care services in Sweden between 1990 and 2009 and estimate how opening to private provision affected mortality rates – an important and not easily contractible quality dimension –…
Value-based purchasing is supposed to tie reimbursement to quality of care and costs. Providers that are high quality and low cost are supposed to get higher reimbursement, those that are low quality and high cost the reverse. The key question is: does this reimbursement approach work in practice? According to a recent study by Grabowski…
Over 10 million Americans need long-term services and supports to assist them in life’s daily activities. Of these, 1.6 million reside in a nursing home. Nursing home care, however, is expensive ($74,800 per year) and and quality is highly variable. To improve the quality of care, many states have begun adopting pay-for-performance (P4P) programs for nursing homes. Between…
Do non-profit nursing home provide better quality than for-profit nursing homes? Generally, for-profit nursing homes appear to have better quality measures, but this could be due to the fact that non-profit nursing homes act as a safety net, whereas non-profit nursing homes treat sicker patients. Today, I look at Grabowski et al. (2012)‘s attempt to…
Typically, Nursing Home quality is measured using metrics from Nursing Home Compare. These metrics are calculated based on survey and certification processes and resident assessments from from the Minimum Data Set (MDS). These, however, are not the only quality metrics one can use. For instance, one can use consumer complaints as a measure of quality…
A number of studies have already examined this question. Baker et al. (2003) examined the effectiveness of a public reporting effort in hospitals in Ohio, finding little relationship between a hospital’s report card ranking and changes in its market share. Cutler et al. (2004) examined the effects of reporting quality information about cardiac surgery on…
In 2011, 13 percent of Americans were over 65 years old. In the coming years, this number will only increase. Unsurprisingly, the demand for long-term care will also increase. Currently, spending on long-term care in Medicaid only was over $50 billion in 2009. One option for increasing the affordability of the long-term care market is…
Hospitals in Sacramento were concerned about the large number of nusring home transfers to its facility. Were many of these tranfers unnecessary? Did patients with little chance of recovery benefit from these hospital stays? To reduce end-of-life tranfers to hospitals from nursing homes, 3 Sacramento-area hospital systems and 18 nursing homes instuted the Preparing Residents…
The increased use of long-term care (LTC) services has been one of the forces increasing health care cost and utilization. Currently, 10.3 million Americans use LTC services. The Kaiser Family Foundation provides a summary of LTC Services and Supports in the U.S. Who uses LTC? One can divide LTC services into those who receive care…