Avoiding nursing homes

The fifth and final new intervention is avoiding living in a nursing home (NH). They should be avoided as there are no benefits of living in a NH for most residents. Dementia symptoms rise, the QoL falls, and so does life expectancy. The total loss from all those living in NHs is $1.93 trillion, equivalent to one tenth of the US's national income in 2016. A CBA would not recommend staying in a NH if that were possible. The most obvious explanation for why NHs are so detrimental is the lack of skilled nursing. In Pennsylvania, the benefits of an extra skilled nurse were $133,000, far exceeding the costs of $83,000. Thus, more skilled nurses need to be hired. Most NHs are paid by Medicaid. If Medicaid raised reimbursement rates by 10 percent, the number of nurses would rise by 8.7 percent. Raising Medicaid rates would be a worthwhile intervention.