Disparities in the Pre and Post Admission Characteristics of Medicaid Beneficiaries Admitted to Nursing Facilities

Publication Date: 6/1/2006

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Description:

The intent of the present report was to consider and compare the behavioral health and service utilization costs of White, Black, and Hispanic Medicaid beneficiaries during the one year before and the one year after these beneficiaries were admitted to a nursing facility. The rationale for the research was the general lack of information about the characteristics of ethnic and racial minority beneficiaries who enter long term care. For example, other than information that the proportions of African Americans in nursing facilities has grown sufficiently over the past 20 or so years that it is roughly equivalent to the community population, that African Americans are often in facilities of lower quality, and that Hispanics are generally under-represented, little is known about their health and social characteristics. This is especially the case for behavioral health characteristics of newly-admitted ethnic and racial minorities.