Aging and Health
Overall life expectancy in the United States increased dramatically throughout the 20th century, and the number of older Americans will be at its highest in the coming decades. Older patients are a particularly important focus for quality-of-care evaluation because they are at risk of serious declines in health and function as a result of poor care and because they use a large amount of health care resources. Challenges for health policy include caring for elders in nursing homes and in the community, assessing the quality of that care, designing and monitoring payment systems for that care, and building interdisciplinary academic capacity in geriatrics. Our current research efforts in these areas are highlighted below.
Profiles of Current Research
Highlights of Recent Studies
Improving the Quality of Care for Dementia — 2010
Results of a pilot program in RAND Health's Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders-2 project indicate that quality indicators for dementia care are improved when primary care practices are coupled with links to local Alzheimer's Association chapters.
Life Expectancy Is Better Than Age as a General Predictor of Health Care Expenditures — 2008
This fact sheet summarizes a study using the 1992-1999 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey to investigate whether age directly affects health care costs, or whether life expectancy would produce more accurate estimates of future expenditures.
Constrained Choice: Why Are Some Women and Men Able To Create and Maintain Healthy Lifestyles, While Others Are Not? — 2008
This fact sheet describes a model of constrained choice that explains how policy decisions at the family, work, community, and government levels can have unintended consequences that ultimately produce differences in men's and women's health.
Improving the Quality of Health Care for Older Adults — 2008
This research brief summarizes the results of Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elderly (ACOVE)-2, which measured the quality of care delivered to a group of older adults, and describes a recent revision of the quality measures, known as ACOVE-3.
Health Coverage Options for Military Retirees — 2007
This research brief summarizes the results of a 2006 pilot survey of military retirees, providing information on retirees' enrollment in civilian health care plans and reliance on TRICARE, the Department of Defense-sponsored health insurance.
A Look Inside the "Doughnut Hole": How Drug-Benefit Limits Affect Retiree Prescription Use
High-cost enrollees in a retiree plan that capped yearly drug benefits at $2,500 discontinued medication at higher rates than comparable patients in an uncapped plan.
Related Web Sites
Bing Center for Health Economics
www.rand.org/health/centers/bing/
RAND Center for Population Health and Health Disparities
www.rand.org/health/centers/pophealth/
USC/RAND Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation
http://roybal.healthpolicy.usc.edu/
Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE)
Working with Congress
RAND’s Office of Congressional Relations (OCR) furthers RAND’s mission to provide objective analysis and effective solutions by disseminating research results to Congress and federal agencies. OCR publishes a monthly electronic newsletter featuring current work on health policy. The RAND Health Congressional Newsletter is found at www.rand.org/congress/newsletters.html. Contact: Winfield Boerckel (winfield_boerckel@rand.org).
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