Constructing a Measure of Private-pay Nursing Home Days

Abstract BACKGROUND: Nursing home (NH) care is financed through multiple sources. Although Medicaid is the predominant payer for NH care, over 20% of residents pay out-of-pocket for their care. Despite this large percentage, an accepted measure of private-pay NH occupancy has not been established and little is known about the types of facilities and the long-term care markets that cater to this population. OBJECTIVES: To describe 2 novel measures of private-pay utilization in the NH setting, including the proportion of privately financed residents and resident days, and examine their construct validity. DESIGN: Retrospective descriptive analysis of US NHs in 2007-2009. MEASURES: We used Medicare claims, Medicare Enrollment records, and the Minimum Data Set to create measures of private-pay resident prevalence and proportion of privately financed NH days. We compared our estimates of private-pay utilization to payer data collected in the NH annual certification survey and evaluated the relationships of our measures with facility characteristics. RESULTS: Our measures of private-pay resident prevalence and private-pay days are highly correlated (r=0.83, P