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The Care Span

THE CARE SPAN

Providing More Home-Delivered Meals Is One Way To Keep Older Adults With Low Care Needs Out Of Nursing Homes

Affiliations
  1. Kali S. Thomas ( [email protected] ) is an assistant professor in the Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, Brown University, and a health research science specialist at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center, both in Providence, Rhode Island.
  2. Vincent Mor is a professor of health services, policy, and practice at the School of Public Health, Brown University, and senior health scientist at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
PUBLISHED:No Accesshttps://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0390

Programs that help older adults live independently in the community can also deliver net savings to states on the costs of long-term supports and services. We estimate that if all states had increased by 1 percent the number of adults age sixty-five or older who received home-delivered meals in 2009 under Title III of the Older Americans Act, total annual savings to states’ Medicaid programs could have exceeded $109 million. The projected savings primarily reflect decreased Medicaid spending for an estimated 1,722 older adults with low care needs who would no longer require nursing home care—instead, they could remain at home, sustained by home-delivered meals. Twenty-six states could have realized net savings in 2009 from the expansion of their home-delivered meals programs, while twenty-two states would have incurred net costs. Programs such as home-delivered meals have the potential to provide substantial savings to some states’ Medicaid programs.

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