Open AccessHealth Care Use and Outcomes in Assisted Living Communities: Race, Ethnicity, and Dual Eligibility
Author(s) -
Helena TemkinGreener,
Yunjiao Mao,
Brian E. McGarry,
Sheryl Zimmerman,
Yue Li
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
medical care research and review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.433
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1552-6801
pISSN - 1077-5587
DOI - 10.1177/10775587211050189
Subject(s) - ethnic group , medicaid , medicine , race (biology) , logistic regression , gerontology , race and health , health equity , assisted living , demography , health care , nursing , public health , botany , sociology , anthropology , economics , biology , economic growth
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.