Beyond managed long-term care: Paying for home care based upon risks of adverse outcomes

Evaluations of home care for chronically ill elderly people have shown disappointing results for many years. Improvements in outcomes have been slight and costs high. We offer a system for setting budget targets based upon effectiveness of home care in mitigating certain adverse outcomes, the risk of those outcomes those outcomes. We believe that such a budgeting system will encourage improved measurement of outcomes and more rigorous justification for expenditures. Moreover, such a system is designed to reallocate resources to higher-risk patients and those more likely to benefit, focusing caregiving on specific outcomes and improving those outcomes. (May 2001)