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The demand for skills training among Medicaid home-based caregivers

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  • Cronin, Christopher J.
  • Lieber, Ethan M.J.

Abstract

Medicaid spends nearly 100 billion dollars annually on home and community-based care for the disabled. Much of this care is provided by personal care aides, few of whom have received training related to the services they provide. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to estimate their demand for training. We find that 13 percent of these caregivers complete training without an incentive. Paying the caregivers four times their hourly wage increases training completion by roughly nine percentage points. Additional experimental variation suggests that among individuals confirmed to be aware of the training, the financial incentive increases completion from 35 to 58 percent. Demand curves based on these results suggest that while many caregivers value the opportunity to train, policies aimed at universal take up require large financial incentives.

Suggested Citation

  • Cronin, Christopher J. & Lieber, Ethan M.J., 2024. "The demand for skills training among Medicaid home-based caregivers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:95:y:2024:i:c:s0167629624000225
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2024.102877
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skills training; Medicaid; Home and community based services; Caregiver; Demand for training; Marginal value of public funds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J88 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Public Policy

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