ADL dependent people may also be sick: neglect of the "home health" population in the home care debate.

Abstract

Fear of large new public outlays have muted debate over recent proposals to expand subsidized supportive (non-medical) home care services for the elderly. Data from the billing portion of the 1984 National Long Term Care Survey demonstrate that of the approximately one million community-dwelling elderly persons whose chronic functional impairments would make them eligible for many proposed home care programs, nearly one third (31%) received services from a home health agency over a 12-month period. Since home health agencies provide substantial amounts of supportive services to enrollees, it is estimated that between three and six million non-medical visits are provided annually to chronically functionally impaired persons through home health agencies. These existent services should be taken into account in predicting the incremental public service burden and costs of proposed supportive home care programs.