EVALUATION STUDIES
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Add like
Add dislike
Add to saved papers

Impact of long-term care insurance on institutional dementia care in Japan.

Health Policy 2003 June
Japan started long-term care insurance for nursing and home help services in April 2000 to cope with growing medical expenditures for the population aged over 65. To study the impact of the new insurance on utilization of dementia care, we compared demographic and clinical characteristics including diagnosis, degree of disability and behavioral disturbance before and after the launch among people with dementia covered by either long-term care or medical insurance. The subjects of the study were randomly selected patients/residents of specialized dementia care units in both psychiatric hospitals and geriatric care facilities before (1145 patients/residents in early 2000) and after (262 for medical insurance and 205 for long-term care insurance in 2001) the new system was launched. Although patients/residents in 2000 and 2001 were similar as a whole, the 2001 sample showed differences between patients in each of the types of insurance systems. Logistic regression analysis revealed that patients/residents covered by long-term care insurance were significantly more likely to be females and require higher levels of care. Patients covered by long-term care insurance were significantly less likely to be transferred from a psychiatric department nor did they display behavioral disturbance or an inability to put out or deal with fire. These results suggest that health care facilities have shifted to the new insurance system for patients requiring higher levels of care but without behavioral disturbances as it was intended. On the other hand, there were policy concerns of that demented persons with moderate activities of daily living impairments and behavioral disturbances would be at risk being excluded from the long-term care scheme.

Full text links

We have located links that may give you full text access.
Can't access the paper?
Try logging in through your university/institutional subscription. For a smoother one-click institutional access experience, please use our mobile app.

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

Mobile app image

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app

All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.

By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Your Privacy Choices Toggle icon

You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now

Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university

For the best experience, use the Read mobile app