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Insured Persons (insured + person)
Selected AbstractsQuantifying Dementia Care in Japan: A Discussion on the Long-Term Care InsurancePSYCHOGERIATRICS, Issue 2 2001Shivani Nandi PhD Abstract: The Japanese government mandated the kaigohoken, or Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) in December 1997. In view of the pressures faced by Japan as an aged society, the aim of the LTCI is to alleviate the burden of providing care for frail older people by ensuring good quality and readily available services to everyone over 65. The LTCI is thus a high profile, age-based entitlement program,age based for persons 65 years of age and above, and age related disability based for ages 40 to 64. Individuals 40 years and above, including foreigners living in Japan for more than a year, are responsible in bearing a part of the financial responsibility by having to pay the mandatory premium. The benefits that the insured person receives are decided after evaluating the care requirement. Care is quantified by being categorized into six levels of increasing requirement, starting from support required, through five levels of increasing care. As is well known, caring for a person with dementia is further complicated by accompanying psychiatric disturbances which in turn increase caregiver burden. Thus the fundamental difficulty in dealing with the care of persons with dementia such as Alzheimer's disease, which is the most common form of dementia, is the evaluation procedure preceding entitlement. We find that the statistical program of the LTCI employed in the initial stage of the evaluation contains discrepancies, and tends to overemphasize bed ridden patients over people with dementia. This paper is a study of the status of people with dementia in Japan, the mechanism of the assessment method, and the problems associated with it. [source] Immigrants and the use of preventive care in the United States,HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2009Yuriy Pylypchuk Abstract Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we compare immigrants' use of preventive care with that of natives. We employ a multinomial switching regression framework that accounts for non-random selection into continuous private insurance, temporary private insurance, public insurance, and no insurance. Our results indicate that among the populations with continuous private coverage and without coverage (uninsured), immigrants, especially non-citizens, are less likely to use preventive care than natives. We find that the longer immigrants stay in the US the more their use of care approximates to that of natives. However, for most types of care, immigrants' use of care never fully converges to that of natives. Among the publicly insured population, immigrants' use of care is similar to natives, but non-citizen immigrants are significantly less likely to use preventive measures. We find that the ability to speak English does not have a significant effect on the use of preventive care among publicly insured persons. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Availability of Safety Net Providers and Access to Care of Uninsured PersonsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2004Jack Hadley Objective. To understand how proximity to safety net clinics and hospitals affects a variety of measures of access to care and service use by uninsured persons. Data Sources. The 1998,1999 Community Tracking Study household survey, administered primarily by telephone survey to households in 60 randomly selected communities, linked to data on community health centers, other free clinics, and safety net hospitals. Study Design. Instrumental variable estimation of multivariate regression models of several measures of access to care (having a usual source of care, unmet or delayed medical care needs, ambulatory service use, and overnight hospital stays) against endogenous measures of distances to the nearest community health center and safety net hospital, controlling for characteristics of uninsured persons and other area characteristics that are related to access to care. The models are estimated with data from a nationally representative sample of uninsured people. Principal Findings. Shorter distances to the nearest safety net providers increase access to care for uninsured persons. Failure to account for the endogeneity of distance to safety net providers on access to care generally leads to finding little or no safety net effects on access. Conclusions. Closer proximity to the safety net increases access to care for uninsured persons. However, the improvements in access to care are relatively small compared with similar measures of access to care for insured persons. Modest expansion of the safety net is unlikely to provide a full substitute for insurance coverage expansions. [source] Disparities in the Emergency Department Evaluation of Chest Pain PatientsACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 2 2007Liliana E. Pezzin PhD Background The existence of race and gender differences in the provision of cardiovascular health care has been increasingly recognized. However, few studies have examined whether these differences exist in the emergency department (ED) setting. Objectives To evaluate race, gender, and insurance differences in the receipt of early, noninvasive diagnostic tests among persons presenting to an ED with a complaint of chest pain. Methods Data were drawn from the U.S. National Hospital Ambulatory Health Care Survey of EDs. Visits made during 1995,2000 by persons aged 30 years or older with chest pain as a reason for the visit were included. Factors affecting the likelihood of ordering electrocardiography, cardiac monitoring, oxygen saturation measurement using pulse oximetry, and chest radiography were analyzed using multivariate probit analysis. Results A total of 7,068 persons aged 30 years or older presented to an ED with a primary complaint of chest pain during the six-year period, corresponding to more than 32 million such visits nationally. The adjusted probability of ordering a test was highest for non,African American patients for all tests considered. African American men had the lowest probabilities (74.3% and 62% for electrocardiography and chest radiography, respectively), compared with 81.1% and 70.3%, respectively, among non,African American men. Only 37.5% of African American women received cardiac monitoring, compared with 54.5% of non,African American men. Similarly, African American women were significantly less likely than non,African American men to have their oxygen saturation measured. Patients who were uninsured or self-pay, as well as patients with "other" insurance, also had a lower probability than insured persons of having these tests ordered. Conclusions This study documents race, gender, and insurance differences in the provision of electrocardiography and chest radiography testing as well as cardiac rhythm and oxygen saturation monitoring in patients presenting with chest pain. These observed differences should catalyze further study into the underlying causes of disparities in cardiac care at an earlier point of patient contact with the health care system. [source] | ||||||||||