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FOR RELEASE WITH A.M. PAPERS ON

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

NATIONAL REPORT PRAISES ARIZONA

FOR HELPING KEEP RESIDENTS OUT OF NURSING HOMES

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2004) – An assessment of health care in the 50 states, released here today, singles out Arizona for its innovative work in several aspects of state-funded health care, especially as a pioneer in the field of long-term care. The state uses managed care to help make sure that individuals receive long-term care at the appropriate level and aren’t unnecessarily propelled into nursing homes. The report appears in the February 2004 issue of Governing magazine.

“Although it’s obvious that many people need the intensive levels of care that nursing homes can offer, for obvious reasons, many people would rather remain in their homes or in a community setting,” said Katherine Barrett, co-author of the report. “But it’s been a real puzzle for the states to figure out how to get the right people in the right place; particularly given the power of the nursing home lobby in some states. Arizona seems to have found one way to get to that goal.”

The process works like this: Individuals are first screened to determine whether an applicant for care qualifies for long-term services. Those who do are assigned to a managed care organization that receives preset payments for every individual under its care. The managed care organization helps beneficiaries determine what is the best setting for them; a nursing home, say, or remaining in their own home.

The results have been impressive. Arizona’s nursing home population is now 1.1 percent of residents who are 65 or older, compared with the U.S. average of 3.7 percent. Of course, it’s in the interests of managed care organizations to keep as many of the elderly or disabled in their homes as possible, because that costs them less money. But Arizona has carefully established a number of quality-assurance mechanisms to ensure that people are being placed in programs that provide the proper level of care.

Governing’s analysis of state-funded health care is part of the Government Performance Project, a six-year-old effort, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, to evaluate a wide range of management and policy functions. This year’s special report focuses on six critical health care problems facing states: long-term care, public health, mental health, prescription drugs, access to care for the uninsured, and care for children.

The Government Performance Project found and documented the inability of the 50 states’ health care system to deliver improvements in medicine fairly and consistently to many of their citizens. Health care in most states is not just inadequate, the study concluded--it’s deteriorating. “After exhaustive analysis and hundreds of interviews,” says Peter Harkness, the magazine’s publisher and editor, “it became clear that there is a health care crisis in America. But it is in no way a medical crisis. It is a fiscal crisis.”

Governing is a policy and management magazine aimed at high-level state and local government officials. An online version of this report will be available at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/intro.htm as of January 29. Press releases for each of the 50 states can be found at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/press.htm.

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