Medicare eligibility

Abstract

The second new dementia intervention is Medicare eligibility. Medicare provides extra services for those with dementia. We still are using costs savings to caregivers from the transfer to independent living as the ultimate measure of benefits. The difference is that the transfer is larger now because of the increased Quality of Life (QoL) following from Medicare eligibility. Our quantitative measure for the QoL is the Geriatric Dementia Scale (GDS) short form. The services associated with Medicare's four parts are covered and the ingredients of the GDS are listed. Regression Discontinuity is relied upon as the causal strategy for explaining why dementia symptoms fall precisely when a person turns 65 and is Medicare eligible. The dementia benefits of being Medicare eligible are $9,338 per person. The additional cost to Medicare if someone's dementia symptoms is not reduced is $6,540. The net-benefits are $2,798 per person, making Medicare eligibility worthwhile.