Medicaid Cuts: Effects on Rural Nursing Homes and the Rural Elderly and Disabled

 

Project Investigators:

Project PI: Charles D. Phillips, PhD, MPH

Senior Investigators: Catherine Hawes, PhD; Jane N. Bolin, PhD, JD, RN

 

Project Overview:

The research will investigate whether nursing home quality and access to nursing home care have eroded in rural areas as a result of changes in Medicare payments or reductions in Medicaid nursing home payment over the period from calendar year 2000 to calendar year 2003.

 

To date, CMS has not issued an RFP to examine the effects of reductions in Medicaid nursing home payments on quality of care.  In addition, most states do not invest heavily in research during economic downturns.  Thus, the proposed study may be one of the only examinations of the short-term effects of these changes in Medicaid policy.  This is particularly true for effects on the rural elderly and the nursing homes in rural communities.  This study could also help inform both Federal and state policymakers.  This is particularly true, given the increasingly heated debate between the Administration and the governors about which level of government should assume fiscal responsibility for Medicaid and long-term care (Pear, New York Times, 2/26/2003). 

 

Project Funding Source:

Office of Rural Health Policy

 

Project Term:

September 2003 - August 2004

 

Project Reports:

 

Phillips, C.D., Chen, M., and Hawes, C. (2006).  Changing Medicaid Spending on Nursing Home Care from 2000 to 2002: Investigating the Impact of Reimbursement Rate Changes on Rural Nursing Homes and Their Residents.  College Station, TX: The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, School of Rural Public Health, Southwest Rural Health Research Center.  REQUEST A COPY