Comparing states' Medicaid nursing facilities and home and community-based services long-term care programs: quality and fit with inclination, capacity, and need.
States employ home and community-based services (HCBS) increasingly in Medicaid support of long-term care and rely less on nursing facilities. We examine how states' nursing facilities and HCBS programs compare and whether states' long-term care responses match their ideological inclination toward, material capacity for supporting, and their citizens' need for these public social programs. We use cross-sectional panel data on structural, process, and outcome quality for nursing facilities and HCBS congregate residential programs. We rank states, correlate these measures, and use regression to link inclination, capacity, and need to quality. We find that states' nursing facility and HCBS program quality are not closely related and that state HCBS congregate residential program quality is independent of inclination, capacity, and need. This latter result underscores a need for uniform HCBS standards and better data on quality.
Lockhart
Charles
C
Department of Political Science, TCU, Fort Worth, Texas 76129, USA. c.lockhart@tcu.edu
Giles-Sims
Jean
J
Klopfenstein
Kristin
K
D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006707:Homes for the Aged / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008484:Medicaid; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013192:Staff Development; D014481:United States