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Health Care Use and Outcomes in Assisted Living Communities: Race, Ethnicity, and Dual Eligibility

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Assisted Living (AL) has become an important residential long-term care option in the United States, yet very little is known about the nature and quality of care received in this setting by racial/ethnic minorities or residents dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Using calendar year 2018 Medicare data, we identified 255,564 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries age 55+ who resided in 24,108 ALs across the United States. We fit several logistic regression models with individual-level covariates and AL-level fixed effects, to examine the association between race/ethnicity and dual status with inpatient hospital admission, 30-day readmission, emergency room use, and nursing home placement. Significant variations in these measures were found both within and across ALs for racial/ethnic minority and dual residents. Our results suggest that disparities in outcomes are most significant by dual eligibility status rather than by race/ethnicity alone. These findings provide important implications for providers, policy makers, and researchers.

Source: Medical Care Research and Review

DOI: 10.1177/10775587211050189

Authors: Helena Temkin-Greener, Yunjiao Mao, Brian McGarry, Sheryl Zimmerman, Yue Li

Institutions: University of Rochester, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language: English

Topic: Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes

Subfield: General Health Professions

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Good health and well-being, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality