According to study author Rebecca Gorges, “While Medicaid’s trend to shift long-term care from institutions to the community is intuitively appealing, it is not clear that the health outcomes are better in-home settings than in nursing facilities.” Researchers of the study found that a disproportionate number of patients are hospitalized when utilizing home care compared to those living in a facility. The resulting hospital bills combined with the price of home care often end up being more expensive than care at a facility.
This is not the first time the correlation between home care and hospitalization of dementia patients has been examined. A study conducted by The University of Chicago in 2012 also concluded that seniors with dementia have a higher risk of hospitalization when they have home care rather than living in a skilled nursing facility.