Maintaining continuity of care for nursing home residents: effect of states' Medicaid bed-hold policies and reimbursement rates.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Recent public concern in response to states' intended repeal of Medicaid bed-hold policies and report of their association with higher hospitalization rates prompts examination of these policies in ensuring continuity of care within the broader context of Medicaid policies.

Data sources/study design

Minimum Data Set assessments of long-stay nursing home residents in April-June 2000 linked to Medicare claims enabled tracking residents' hospitalizations during the ensuing 5 months and determining hospital discharge destination. Multinomial multilevel models estimated the effect of state policies on discharge destination controlling for resident, hospitalization, nursing home, and market characteristics.

Results

Among 77,955 hospitalizations, 5,797 (7.4 percent

SUBMITTER: Intrator O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2669621 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature