The first-ever compilation of federal data profiles five
types of long-term care providers in 2012. About 58,500 long-term care
providers are divided among five groups, including nursing homes and adult day
services. among 58,500 entities and nearly 1.5 million nursing employees and
the people who use them.
More than 8 million people (mostly women and mostly older
than 65) used services of a long-term care provider last year, according to the
first-ever compilation of federal data profiling the types of providers in the
USA and the people who use them.
The report, released Thursday, is based on the National
Study of Long-Term Care Providers, a new effort by the National Center for
Health Statistics to get a better handle on the options for care and determine
trends.
"Most think of nursing homes, but because the long-term
care industry has evolved over the past 30 years, nursing homes are still the
major player in long-term care services but not the only provider," says
Lauren Harris-Kojetin, the report's lead author.
The five areas of paid, regulated providers are adult day
service centers, home health agencies, hospices, nursing homes, and assisted
living and similar residential care communities. The report for 2012 includes
some 2011 data; officials say numbers will be updated every two years.
Having the federal data will help providers and officials
understand the scope of caregiving needs, suggests John Schall, CEO of the Caregiver Action Network, a family
caregiver organization based in Washington, D.C.
"This confirms what we always suspected in terms of
what those numbers would look like," he says. "That's a fascinating
number (8 million) because we never actually had that number."
However, Schall says the 8 million figure is still "a
minority of people receiving care."
"By far, the lion's share of people getting care are
getting it from their family caregivers rather than from paid care
workers," he says. "There's no question that family caregiving is
really the backbone of the long-term care support services in this
country."
Data released this summer from the Pew Research Center
showed that 39% of adults in the USA say they are caregivers for someone with
significant health issues, up from 30% in 2010.
In many cases, Harris-Kojetin says, the new information is
"a piece of the picture" of people who may also be getting unpaid,
informal care, "but at least some services from paid, regulated
providers."
The national report finds that about 58,500 paid, regulated
long-term care entities are divided among the five sectors and employ nearly
1.5 million nurses and nursing aides.
The report finds that "a sizable portion of service
users" in all five types of facility sectors had a diagnosis of
Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, ranging from about 30% of home health
patients to almost half of nursing home residents.
The percentage of users of long-term care services diagnosed
with depression was highest in nursing homes (48.5%) and lowest in residential
care communities (24.8%), adult day services centers (23.5%) and hospices
(22.2%).
Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY December 12, 2013
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