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Abstract: 

People who, as a result of disability or age, require a nursing home level of care are vulnerable, at risk of physical, emotional, and financial abuse by the facilities where they live and the employees who are supposed to care for them. The frequently poor quality of nursing home care, and its inevitable high cost, are often cited as arguments in favor of home care. Utilization review practices that send patients home from hospitals “quicker and sicker,” and shortages of assisted living facility and nursing home beds (or at least significant delays in placement) also create demand for home health care. Most people who have care needs wish to stay at home and not be institutionalized. But the problem is only shifted, not solved, if home care is unaffordable or its recipients do not have good care and appropriate living situations. This is the first of a two-part article discussing a recent GAO study that investigated Medicare fraud. This article discusses the study’s background and methodology.

Keywords: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission; MedPAC; Government Accountability Office; GAO

Affiliations:  1: Editor, Victimization of the Elderly and Disabled.