Spending on nursing home care rose
Life and Time Health Insurance reported that spending on nursing home care climbed to more than $138 billion in 2008, up 4.6% from the 2007 total, according to federal analysts. The "good" news is that the rate of increase decelerated from 5.8% in 2007. Analysts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have reported those figures in the latest issue of Health Affairs, an academic journal that covers health care finance and delivery systems.
The slowdown in the LTC spending growth rate was due partly to reduced growth in private spending on nursing homes. Private payers account for 38% of total spending on nursing home services. Increases in nursing home care prices fell to 4% in 2008, from 4.7% in 2007, and that also contributed to the deceleration, the researchers report.
Meanwhile, public spending for nursing home services grew slightly faster than the year before because of increased growth in Medicaid nursing home spending. Medicaid, which accounted for 41% of total nursing home spending in 2008, saw spending on that item grow 2.6% in 2008, after growing just 2.6% in 2007 and 1.5% in 2006.
