Long-term care generosity index

According to a report issued this week by the Rockefeller Institute of Government on Medicaid and long-term care, states vary widely in their coverage of eligible populations, the amount, duration, and scope of services, the amount of care that is covered, and their administrative processes. Finding that there is no standard definition or a way to measure key dimensions of long-term care, the report predicates, "Perhaps the most straightforward measure of state long-term care policy is the generosity of its coverage of both populations and services."

To measure generosity, compiling a "Long-Term Care Policy Generosity Index," the authors looked at coverage and service policies for each state in 2004 for 8 major categories of long-term care--home health, hospice, personal care, private duty nurse, intermediate care facility/mental health, inpatient psychiatric care, intermediate care/mental retardation, and nursing home--and ranked states accordingly. New York came in first; Hawaii ranked 48th.

Medicaid Policy and Long-Term Care Spending: An Interactive View
      Report (pdf, 20pp/224kB), August 2010
      News release, Aug. 3, 2010