Home care is the answer: what is the question?

Abstract

The purposes of this article are three. First, to emphasize a basic implication of the common demographic summaries and projections as they apply to long-term care, namely that we need to age-adjust utilization projections. Second, to discuss an example in which the Health Care Financing Administration reminded the rest of us several years ago of the requirement to age-adjust long-term care utilization projections, but presently are ignoring their own counsel in their waivered programs which require a constant absolute level of long-term care utilization over time (and constant absolute levels by definition are not age-adjusted). Third, to pose a question for which home care might be the answer, but the question must be phrased very carefully.