New Insurance Study Findings Have Been Reported by Investigators at University of Rochester (End-of-life Care Transitions In Assisted Living: Associations With State Staffing and Training Regulations): Insurance

2023 JUL 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- A new study on Insurance is now available. According to news originating from Rochester, New York, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “We examined the frequency and categories of end-of-life care transitions among assisted living community decedents and their associations with state staffing and training regulations. Cohort study. Medicare beneficiaries who resided in assisted living facilities and had validated death dates in 2018-2019 (N = 113,662).”

Financial supporters for this research include Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Rochester, “We used Medicare claims and assessment data for a cohort of assisted living decedents. Generalized linear models were used to examine the associations between state staffing and training requirements and end-of-life care transitions. The frequency of end-of-life care transitions was the outcome of interest. State staffing and training regulations were the key covariates. We controlled for individual, assisted living, and area-level characteristics. End-of-life care transitions were observed among 34.89% of our study sample in the last 30 days before death, and among 17.25% in the last 7 days. Higher frequency of care transitions in the last 7 days of life was associated with higher regulatory specificity of licensed [incidence risk ratio (IRR) = 1.08; P = .002] and direct care worker staffing (IRR = 1.22; P< .0001). Greater regulatory specificity of direct care worker training (IRR = 0.75; P< .0001) was associated with fewer transitions. Similar associations were found for direct care worker staffing (IRR = 1.15; P< .0001) and training (IRR = 0.79; P< .001) and transitions within 30 days of death. There were significant variations in the number of care transitions across states. The frequency of end-of-life care transitions among assisted living decedents during the last 7 or 30 days of life was associated with state regulatory specificity for staffing and staff training.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “State gov-ernments and assisted living administrators may wish to set more explicit guidelines for assisted living staffing and training to help improve end-of-life quality of care.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: End-of-life Care Transitions In Assisted Living: Associations With State Staffing and Training Regulations. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2023;24(6). Journal of the American Medical Directors Association can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of the American Medical Directors Association - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-the-american-medical-directors-association/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Wenhan Guo, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, Rochester, NY, United States. Additional authors for this research include Shubing Cai, Helena Temkin-Greener, Thomas Caprio and Lindsay Schwartz.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2023.02.002. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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