The rising number of geriatric patients with complex, chronic, and often multiple health conditions presents numerous policy challenges. RAND has conducted the most comprehensive examination of the quality of medical care provided to the vulnerable elderly and coordinates interdisciplinary research centers to develop and study innovative clinical and health services interventions to improve health care outcomes for geriatric patients.
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.
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.
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.
Vulnerable elders receive on average only half of recommended care; for conditions that affect primarily the elderly, they receive appropriate care less than one-third of the time. Interventions based on ACOVE indicators can improve the care physicians provide to older adults.
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.
This fact sheet describes the benefits of influenza vaccination for nursing home residents and staff.
Increased life expectancy and advances in health care mean that Americans now live longer, but with increased chronic illness at the end of life. Deliberate reforms to the U.S. health care system are needed to respond to these changes.
A team of economists and physicians explored how changes in medical technology, disease, and disability would affect health care spending for the population age 65 and older.
RAND Health has collaborated with Pfizer, Inc. to create the first quality-of-care assessment system for older persons.
A team of experts from RAND Health has developed a system for measuring the quality of care delivered to the elderly and used the system to assess the quality of care given to a group of community-dwelling older adults who were members of a managed care plan.
This research brief summarizes RAND Health research on pharmacy compliance with California's prescription drug discount program for Medicare beneficiaries.
In a series of studies, we have assessed the cost and consequences of various approaches to providing coverage for these groups (children, employees in small businesses, substance abusers, the uninsured, and the near-elderly).
Anne Pebley and Laura Rudkin explore research results on the characteristics of grandchildren and grandparents in common households and identify a research agenda for this phenomenon.
Surprisingly little is known about how much the financial burden is, how much coverage might increase demand for prescription drugs, and how much such coverage might cost.
Examined: (1) the effects of childbearing on women's health later in life, (2) the relationship between poor vision and well-being of older individuals, and (3) the effect of socioeconomic and health issues on the driving patterns of the elderly.
Everyone knows that we are living longer, but the great unknown -- and the subject of some controversy -- has been whether older Americans are living in better health.
Increasing the rate of return on Medicaid patients would induce nursing homes to admit more Medicaid patients, but it would not induce them to increase quality.
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