Komisar, Harriet L., Janet Hunt-McCool, and Judith Feder. Who Need Long-Term Care. Proposals to change the structure of the Medicare program include an increasing role of risk-based health plans such as health maintenance organizations. In December 1996, only 11 percent of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in these plans although more than 60 percent of beneficiaries had at least one plan in their area. Expanding risk plans for the Medicare population raises questions for beneficiaries who need long term care services.
Concerns arise about access to expensive services and about coordination of care.
The authors of this article use data from the 1992 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to compare average Medicare spending and service mix for beneficiaries depending on their functional status. These higher costs are partly attributed to the use of hospital and home health care by community dwelling elderly. Lazarou, Jason, Bruce H. Pomeranz, and Paul N. Corey. Incidence ofAdverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients. The study combined the incidence of ADR that occurred while patients were in the hospital with the ADR that caused hospital admission to occur.