Nursing-Home Groups Embrace Emerging Managed-Care Model
February 27, 2012 | Read Time: 1 minute
With health care costs rising and Medicare and Medicaid funds on the decline, nursing home operators are increasingly shutting down institutions and investing in an alternative model of long-term care that allows more elderly people to remain in their own homes, The New York Times says.
The new model bases services on adult day-care centers and home visits by doctors, social workers, physical therapists, and other specialists, with nonprofit providers getting a fixed monthly fee for each patient. Studies suggest it can provide better results than traditional nursing homes at less cost.
The number of such programs nationwide has doubled from 42 to 84 since 2007 while the number of nursing homes has declined.
New York State plans to direct 70,000 to 80,000 people with long-term care needs into home-based managed care programs in the next three years, and on Thursday the Archdiocese of New York, one of the state’s biggest nursing-home operators, said it plans to sell two of its seven institutional facilities and launch seven day-care centers.
