Do elderly Medicaid patients experience reduced access to nursing home care?
This paper uses data from the National Long-Term Care Survey and the Area Resources File to analyze the problem of diminished access to nursing home care for elderly Medicaid patients. Using a proxy for the length of time on a waiting list before nursing home entry as my measure of access, I find evidence suggesting that nursing home operators in some areas preferentially admit private patients. Waitlisting of Medicaid patients appears to be a problem mainly in counties in which a high proportion of potential nursing home patients are private and counties in which bed supply is low.
Ettner
S L
SL
Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003625:Data Collection; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000191:economics*; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000191:economics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States; D014850:Waiting Lists