According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 1.7 million home health aides and personal and home care aides in the United States as of 2008. These home care aides are rapidly ...becoming the backbone of America's system of long-term care, and their numbers continue to grow. Often referred to as frontline care providers or direct care workers, home care aides-disproportionately women of color-bathe, feed, and offer companionship to the elderly and disabled in the context of the home. InThe Caring Self, Clare L. Stacey draws on observations of and interviews with aides working in Ohio and California to explore the physical and emotional labor associated with the care of others.
Aides experience material hardships-most work for minimum wage, and the services they provide are denigrated as unskilled labor-and find themselves negotiating social norms and affective rules associated with both family and work. This has negative implications for workers who struggle to establish clear limits on their emotional labor in the intimate space of the home. Aides often find themselves giving more, staying longer, even paying out of pocket for patient medications or incidentals; in other words, they feel emotional obligations expected more often of family members than of employees. However, there are also positive outcomes: some aides form meaningful ties to elderly and disabled patients. This sense of connection allows them to establish a sense of dignity and social worth in a socially devalued job. The case of home care allows us to see the ways in which emotional labor can simultaneously have deleterious and empowering consequences for workers.
Objective
To examine the growth and evolution of the home health agency (HHA) market and to compare quality performance across HHA ownership categories.
Data Source
Agency characteristics were ...extracted from Medicare cost reports and Provider of Services file. Quality of care and patient characteristics were extracted from Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings and HHA Public Use File.
Study Design
Agency‐ and state‐level analyses were conducted to describe HHA market trends. Patient characteristics and quality measures were compared across ownership categories of interest.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods
All Medicare‐certified HHAs in operation, 2005‐2018.
Principal Findings
Over the study period, the HHA sector grew substantially, increasing from 7899 to 10 818 agencies, and chain‐owned HHAs doubled in number from 903 (11.4% of all agencies) to 1841 (17.0%). In 2018, across agency types, for‐profit nonchain agencies were the largest category both in the number of agencies (67.8%) and the number of Medicare enrollees served (40.7%). Additionally, for‐profit nonchain agencies grew most in total number, from 4293 (54.3%) to 7337 (67.8%), while for‐profit chain agencies grew most in the number of Medicare enrollees served, from 439 998 (12.9%) to 1 082 385 (28.3%). Regarding patient composition, for‐profit nonchain agencies served the highest proportion of dual eligible beneficiaries (42.2%) and African‐Americans (27.9%) among all agency types. Regarding quality performance, a higher star rating is significantly (P < .01) associated with chain agency status. Moreover, chain HHAs performed better on self‐reported process measures, and risk‐adjusted self‐reported outcome measures; however, they performed worse on risk‐adjusted claims‐based outcome measures. These results were similar across for‐profit and nonprofit chain agencies.
Conclusion
Chains play a growing role in the home health sector. Substantial differences in geographic distribution, patient composition, and quality performance were observed between chain‐ and nonchain HHAs. Examining the growth and performance of multi‐agency chains can help inform quality reporting and monitoring, assess payment adequacy, and facilitate greater transparency and accountability within the HHA marketplace.
Almost home Baranek, Patricia M; Deber, Raisa B; Williams, A. Paul
Almost home,
c2004, 20040930, 2004, 2014, 2004-01-01, 20040101
eBook
Almost Homeis a rich and comprehensive study of the policy questions underlying the shift in medical care from hospitals to homes and communities, a change that is reshaping Canadian health care ...policy and politics. Using document analysis, and interviews with government officials and other key stakeholders in the policy community, the authors analyze the policy content and process of five different attempts to reform home and community care in Ontario between 1985 and 1996, as introduced by governments from three different political parties.
As this study demonstrates, the ongoing shift from the Medicare 'mainstream' of physician and hospital care to the Medicare 'margins,' entails not only a shift in the site of care but an erosion of the post-war state's role in health care. While Medicare continues to resist political and ideological forces aimed at shrinking the state's role, cost constraints, demographic pressures and technological advancements are increasing pressure on home and community care.
The authors have made a significant contribution to research on policy development and change. Their rigorously analytical approach fills a major gap in book-length literature on long-term health care in Canada.
Objective
Patients with heart failure (HF) have high rates of rehospitalization. Home health care (HHC) patients with HF are not well studied in this regard. The objectives of this study were to ...determine patient, HHC agency, and geographic (i.e., area variation) factors related to 30‐day rehospitalization in a national population of HHC patients with HF, and to describe the extent to which rehospitalizations were potentially avoidable.
Data Sources
Chronic Condition Warehouse data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Study Design
Retrospective cohort design.
Data Extraction
The 2005 national population of HHC patients was matched with hospital and HHC claims, the Provider of Service file, and the Area Resource File.
Principal Findings
The 30‐day rehospitalization rate was 26 percent with 42 percent of patients having cardiac‐related diagnoses for the rehospitalization. Factors with the strongest association with rehospitalization were consistent between the multilevel model and Cox proportional hazard models: number of prior hospital stays, higher HHC visit intensity category, and dyspnea severity at HHC admission. Substantial numbers of rehospitalizations were judged to be potentially avoidable.
Conclusions
The persistently high rates of rehospitalization have been difficult to address. There are health care‐specific actions and policy implications that are worth examining to improve rehospitalization rates.
Abstract Objectives To determine the relative influence of different factors on place of death in patients with cancer. Data sources Four electronic databases—Medline (1966-2004), PsycINFO ...(1972-2004), CINAHL (1982-2004), and ASSIA (1987-2004); previous contacts with key experts; hand search of six relevant journals. Review methods We generated a conceptual model, against which studies were analysed. Included studies had original data on risk factors for place of death among patients, > 80% of whom had cancer. Strength of evidence was assigned according to the quantity and quality of studies and consistency of findings. Odds ratios for home death were plotted for factors with high strength evidence. Results 58 studies were included, with over 1.5 million patients from 13 countries. There was high strength evidence for the effect of 17 factors on place of death, of which six were strongly associated with home death: patients' low functional status (odds ratios range 2.29-11.1), their preferences (2.19-8.38), home care (1.37-5.1) and its intensity (1.06-8.65), living with relatives (1.78-7.85), and extended family support (2.28-5.47). The risk factors covered all groups of the model: related to illness, the individual, and the environment (healthcare input and social support), the latter found to be the most important. Conclusions The ne of factors that influence where patients with cancer die is complicated. Future policies and clinical practice should focus on ways of empowering families and public education, as well as intensifying home care, risk assessment, and training practitioners in end of life care.
: media-1vid110.1542/5984244876001PEDS-VA_2017-4211
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are suggested to be overrepresented in unstable ...housing and foster care. In the current study, we assess whether LGBTQ youth are overrepresented in unstable housing and foster care and examine disparities in school functioning, substance use, and mental health for LGBTQ youth versus heterosexual youth in unstable housing and foster care.
A total of 895 218 students (10-18 years old) completed the cross-sectional California Healthy Kids Survey from 2013 to 2015. Surveys were administered in 2641 middle and high schools throughout California. Primary outcome measures included school functioning (eg, school climate, absenteeism), substance use, and mental health.
More youth living in foster care (30.4%) and unstable housing (25.3%) self-identified as LGBTQ than youth in a nationally representative sample (11.2%). Compared with heterosexual youth and youth in stable housing, LGBTQ youth in unstable housing reported poorer school functioning (
s = -0.10 to 0.40), higher substance use (
s = 0.26-0.28), and poorer mental health (odds ratios = 0.73-0.80). LGBTQ youth in foster care reported more fights in school (
= 0.16), victimization (
= 0.10), and mental health problems (odds ratios = 0.82-0.73) compared with LGBTQ youth in stable housing and heterosexual youth in foster care.
Disparities for LGBTQ youth are exacerbated when they live in foster care or unstable housing. This points to a need for protections for LGBTQ youth in care and care that is affirming of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Just Care Nishida, Akemi
2022, 2022-07-15, Volume:
9
eBook
"Just Care examines care as a site where the somatic, the political economy, and intersectional social oppressions manifest and materialize interactively, while it is also a vision and praxis for ...radically collective and affectionate ways to live and transform society"--.
Use of postacute care is common and costly in the United States, but there is significant uncertainty about whether the choice of postacute care setting matters. Understanding these tradeoffs is ...particularly important as new alternative payment models push patients toward lower-cost settings for care.
To investigate the association of patient outcomes and Medicare costs of discharge to home with home health care vs discharge to a skilled nursing facility.
A retrospective cohort study used Medicare claims data from short-term acute-care hospitals in the United States and skilled nursing facility and home health assessment data from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2016, on Medicare beneficiaries who were discharged from the hospital to home with home health care or to a skilled nursing facility. To address the endogeneity of treatment choice, an instrumental variables approach used the differential distance between the beneficiary's home zip code and the closest home health agency and the closest skilled nursing facility as an instrument.
Receipt of postacute care at home vs in a skilled nursing facility.
Readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge, death within 30 days of hospital discharge, improvement in functional status during the postacute care episode, and Medicare payment for postacute care and total payment for the 60-day episode.
A total of 17 235 854 hospitalizations (62.2% women and 37.8% men; mean SD age, 80.5 7.9 years) were discharged either to home with home health care (38.8%) or to a skilled nursing facility (61.2%) during the study period. Discharge to home was associated with a 5.6-percentage point higher rate of readmission at 30 days compared with discharge to a skilled nursing facility (95% CI, 0.8-10.3; P = .02). There were no significant differences in 30-day mortality rates (-2.0 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.8-10.3; P = .12) or improved functional status (-1.9 percentage points; 95% CI, -12.0 to 8.2; P = .71). Medicare payment for postacute care was significantly lower for those discharged to home compared with those discharged to a skilled nursing facility (-$5384; 95% CI, -$6932 to -$3837; P < .001), as was total Medicare payment within the first 60 days after admission (-$4514; 95% CI, -$6932 to -$3837; P < .001).
Among Medicare beneficiaries eligible for postacute care at home or in a skilled nursing facility, discharge to home with home health care was associated with higher rates of readmission, no detectable differences in mortality or functional outcomes, and lower Medicare payments.
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