There has been an 11.6% drop in the availability of home care workers for every 100 patients seeking their help.
By Alan Mozes
Reporter
HealthDay
Over the last decade, an aging American population has increasingly turned away from nursing homes in favor of trained caregivers who can provide critical help in the home with basic daily tasks.
But a new investigation warns the need for at-home care has vastly outpaced a much smaller growth in the pool of home care workers.
The result: between 2013 and 2019, the number of available home care workers for every 100 patients in need has fallen by nearly 12%.
The resulting caregiver gap is putting vulnerable patients in a very precarious position, the researchers said.
“We know that the number of people who want to receive long-term care at home has been growing over time, which is in part because the U.S. population is getting older,” explained study lead author Amanda Kreider. She is a postdoctoral researcher with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
“Additionally, older adults and people with disabilities are increasingly accessing long-term care at home instead of nursing homes,” Kreider added.
Much of that shift stems from expanded low- or no-cost coverage for home and community-based services (HCBS) steadily put in place by Medicaid, the main insurer for long-term care, she noted.
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