Hi-Stat img
□ JAPANESE
□ HOME
. Project outline
Organization

Basic Concept

Staff

. Research
Discussion Papers
Database
. Announcements
Workshops
Lecture series
Newsletter
. Links
Hitotsubashi University

Hitotsubashi University Library

Institute of Economic Research

Research Centre for Information and Statistics of Social Science

ASHSTAT Project

Global Economic History Network

The Determinants of Exit from Nursing Homes
and the Price Elasticity of Nursing Home Care:
Evidence from Japanese Micro-level Data



Haruko Noguchi and Satoshi Shimizutani


January, 2005


Previous paper Next paper
Abstract
This study examines how the price mechanism affects the length of residents’ nursing home stay and their destination after exit. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate policy options to reduce the number of socially institutionalized elderly nursing home residents in Japan. To address these issues, we take advantage of micro-level data from The Survey on Care Service Providers compiled by the Japanese government. Our duration estimates show that the price elasticity of the hazard of exit from welfare care facilities was 1.7 (95% CI: 0.4-3.0) and 1.8 (95% CI: 0.0-3.8) from health care facilities. The probit estimates show that a 1 percentage point increase in copayments leads to an increase in the probability of returning home by 0.04% for patients of welfare care facilities and 3.7% for those of health care facilities. In contrast, the price elasticity of the probability of being re-hospitalized is -3.3% for patients of health care facilities and -1.9% for those of medical care facilities. An appropriate price policy may work well to shorten patients’ length of stay and to reduce the number of the socially institutionalized. Since the effects of the introduction of a price mechanism may differ for different types of facilities, public policies aimed at broadening residents’ range of choices need to be designed with care and incorporate an appropriate risk adjustment system to provide a safety net for those elderly highly at risk of being socially institutionalized.
Download (178KB)
Copyright (C) 2003 by Institute of Economic Research.All rights reserved.