scholarly journals Financing Long-term Care: Lessons From Japan

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 462-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Ikegami

Long-term care (LTC) must be carefully delineated when expenditures are compared across countries because how LTC services are defined and delivered differ in each country. LTC’s objectives are to compensate for functional decline and mitigate the care burden of the family. Governments have tended to focus on the poor but Germany opted to make LTC universally available in 1995/1996. The applicant’s level of dependence is assessed by the medical team of the social insurance plan. Japan basically followed this model but, unlike Germany where those eligible may opt for cash benefits, they are limited to services. Benefits are set more generously in Japan because, prior to its implementation in 2000, health insurance had covered long-stays in hospitals and there had been major expansions of social services. These service levels had to be maintained and be made universally available for all those meeting the eligibility criteria. As a result, efforts to contain costs after the implementation of the LTC Insurance have had only marginal effects. This indicates it would be more efficient and equitable to introduce public LTC Insurance at an early stage before benefits have expanded as a result of ad hoc policy decisions.

Author(s):  
Peter Alders ◽  
Frederik Schut

Based on the experiences of Japan and Germany, Ikegami argues that middle-income countries should introduce public long-term care insurance (LTCi) at an early stage, before benefits have expanded as a result of ad hoc policy decisions to win popular support. The experience of the Netherlands, however, shows that an early introduction of public LTCi may not prevent, but instead even facilitate later extensions of public coverage. We argue that social norms and cultural values about caring for the elderly might be the main driver of expansions of LTCi coverage. Furthermore, we posit that this expansion may reinforce the social norms supporting it. Hence, politicians and policy-makers should be aware of this possible self-reinforcing effect.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas G. Castle

Long-term care institutions have emerged as dominant sites of death for the elderly. However, studies of this trend have primarily examined nursing homes. The purpose of this research is to determine demographic, functional, disease, and facility predictors and/or correlates of death for the elderly residing in board and care facilities. Twelve factors are found to be significant: proportion of residents older than sixty-five years of age, proportion of residents who are chair- or bed-fast, proportion of residents with HIV, bed size, ownership, chain membership, affiliation with a nursing home, number of health services provided other than by the facility, the number of social services provided other than by the facility, the number of social services provided by the facility, and visits by Ombudsmen. These are discussed and comparisons with similar studies in nursing homes are made.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Mi Park ◽  
Wonsock Kim ◽  
Hye Chang Rhim ◽  
Eun Sik Lee ◽  
Jong Hun Kim ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The role of frailty assessment in older adults with pneumonia is not well defined. Our purpose of the study was to investigate 30-day clinical course and functional outcomes of pneumonia in older adults with different levels of frailty. Methods A prospective cohort was conducted at a university hospital in Seoul, Korea with 176 patients who were 65 years or older and hospitalized with pneumonia. A 50-item deficit-accumulation frailty index (FI) (range: 0–1; robust < 0.15, pre-frail 0.15–0.24, mild-to-moderately frail 0.25–0.44, and severely frail ≥ 0.45) and the pneumonia severity CURB-65 score (range: 0–5) were measured. Primary outcome was death or functional decline, defined as worsening dependencies in 21 daily activities and physical tasks in 30 days. Secondary outcomes were intensive care unit admission, psychoactive drug use, nasogastric tube feeding, prolonged hospitalization (length of stay > 15 days), and discharge to a long-term care institution. Results The population had a median age 79 (interquartile range, 75–84) years, 68 (38.6 %) female, and 45 (25.5 %) robust, 36 (47.4 %) pre-frail, 37 (21.0 %) mild-to-moderately frail, and 58 (33.0 %) severely frail patients. After adjusting for age, sex, and CURB-65, the risk of primary outcome for increasing frailty categories was 46.7 %, 61.1 %, 83.8 %, and 86.2 %, respectively (p = 0.014). The risk was higher in patients with frailty (FI ≥ 0.25) than without (FI < 0.25) among those with CURB-65 0–2 points (75 % vs. 52 %; p = 0.022) and among those with CURB-65 3–5 points (93 % vs. 65 %; p = 0.007). In addition, patients with greater frailty were more likely to require nasogastric tube feeding (robust vs. severe frailty: 13.9 % vs. 60.3 %) and prolonged hospitalization (18.2 % vs. 50.9 %) and discharge to a long-term care institution (4.4 % vs. 59.3 %) (p < 0.05 for all). Rates of intensive care unit admission and psychoactive drug use were similar. Conclusions Older adults with frailty experience high rates of death or functional decline in 30 days of pneumonia hospitalization, regardless of the pneumonia severity. These results underscore the importance of frailty assessment in the acute care setting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 629-629
Author(s):  
Silke Metzelthin ◽  
Sandra Zwakhalen ◽  
Barbara Resnick

Abstract Functional decline in older adults often lead towards acute or long-term care. In practice, caregivers often focus on completion of care tasks and of prevention of injuries from falls. This task based, safety approach inadvertently results in fewer opportunities for older adults to be actively involved in activities. Further deconditioning and functional decline are common consequences of this inactivity. To prevent or postpone these consequences Function Focused Care (FFC) was developed meaning that caregivers adapt their level of assistance to the capabilities of older adults and stimulate them to do as much as possible by themselves. FFC was first implemented in institutionalized long-term care in the US, but has spread rapidly to other settings (e.g. acute care), target groups (e.g. people with dementia) and countries (e.g. the Netherlands). During this symposium, four presenters from the US and the Netherlands talk about the impact of FFC. The first presentation is about the results of a stepped wedge cluster trial showing a tendency to improve activities of daily living and mobility. The second presentation is about a FFC training program. FFC was feasible to implement in home care and professionals experienced positive changes in knowledge, attitude, skills and support. The next presenter reports about significant improvements regarding time spent in physical activity and a decrease in resistiveness to care in a cluster randomized controlled trial among nursing home residents with dementia. The fourth speaker presents the content and first results of a training program to implement FFC in nursing homes. Nursing Care of Older Adults Interest Group Sponsored Symposium


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIOBHAN REILLY ◽  
MICHELE ABENDSTERN ◽  
JANE HUGHES ◽  
DAVID CHALLIS ◽  
DAN VENABLES ◽  
...  

There has been debate for some years as to whether the best model of care for people with dementia emphasises specialist facilities or integrated service provision. Although the United Kingdom National Service Framework for Older People recommended that local authority social services departments encourage the development of specialist residential care for people with dementia, uncertainty continues as to the benefits of particular care regimes, partly because research evidence is limited. This paper examines a large number of ‘performance measures’ from long-term care facilities in North West England that have residents with dementia. Of the 287 in the survey, 56 per cent described themselves as specialist services for elderly people with mental ill-health problems (known familiarly as ‘EMI homes’). It was envisaged that EMI homes would score higher than non-EMI homes on several measures of service quality for people with dementia that were developed from research evidence and policy documents. The analysis, however, found that EMI homes performed better than non-EMI homes on only a few measures. While both home types achieved good results on some standards, on others both performed poorly. Overall, EMI and non-EMI homes offered a similar service.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-32
Author(s):  
K.A. Samofatova ◽  

the article describes a matrix of stages and process tools developed on the basis of algorithms of legal, organizational, technical and financial processes, consisting of a set of stages, processes and tools necessary for the implementation of an infrastructure PPP project in the field of social services, the strict implementation of which will lead to the effective functioning of the organizational and managerial mechanism for providing services in the framework of long-term care for elderly citizens on the basis of publicprivate partnership (PPP), reflecting the interaction between public and private parties within the framework of a concession agreement for the object of social or medical infrastructure with the participation of public, insurance and credit institutions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Vidal-Meliá ◽  
Manuel Ventura-Marco ◽  
Juan Manuel Pérez-Salamero González

This paper develops a social insurance accounting model for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme combining retirement and long-term care (LTC) contingencies. The procedure relies on standard double-entry bookkeeping and enables us to compile a “Swedish” type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) following a framework equivalent to an open group approach. This methodology is suitable for reporting the system’s solvency status and can show periodical changes in the system’s financial position by means of an income statement. The information underpinning the actuarial valuation is based on events and transactions that are verifiable at the valuation date, without considering expected future trends. The paper also contains an illustrative example to make it easier for policymakers to understand the main advantages and difficulties of our proposal. The policy conclusions stress the need to properly report social insurance benefits to enhance transparency and sustainability and to improve decision-making because it is in the public interest to do so.


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