title: Serving Older Adults with Complex Care Needs: A New Benefit Option for Medicare.
abstract: Medicare was originally designed to protect beneficiaries from the financial burden of acute episodes of illness. As lifespans lengthen, Medicare must adapt to serve beneficiaries with substantial long-term physical or cognitive impairment who need personal care assistance. These beneficiaries often incur high out-of-pocket costs for Medicare-covered services as well as home and community care not covered by Medicare. This latter category of care is often key to continued independence. To improve Medicare's capacity to serve such beneficiaries, and to prevent unnecessary institutionalization, this issue brief, one in a series on Medicare's future challenges, proposes a complex care benefit option that would include home and community services, and describes how it might be structured to balance the goals of improving care for beneficiaries and ensuring affordability.
authors.affiliation: Center on Aging, American Institutes for Research.
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Ilene L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Hollin
authors.affiliation: Health Policy and Management and Surgery, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Lauren H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Nicholas
authors.affiliation: Council of Economic Advisors, The Commonwealth Fund Council.
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schoen
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, and Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000191:economics*; D005382:Financing, Personal; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007342:Insurance Benefits / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States