Nursing care insurance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Nursing Care insurance in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Although rheu matoid arthritis is amongst those functional disabling diseases requiring m assive help and care, there is as yet no study on how RA patients master th eir everyday lives, nor are there reports on how many of those patients are in need of and/or do in fact receive benefits from the German Nursing Care Insurance. Methods: In a representative sample of considerably disabled RA patients (f unctional capacity < 67 %) in rheumatological care it was investigated how many patients received nursing care insurance benefits and how many more wo uld have been entitled to receive them. Standardized interviews exploring f unctional capacity, amount of help and care needed and help-seeking behavio ur were conducted to determine which patient-related and resource-related c haracteristics were associated with unmet need regarding the patients entit lement to benefits of nursing care insurance. Using the relation between ju stified need for nursing care insurance benefits and the functional status score, a coefficient was computed by logistic regression to project the exp ected proportion of RA patients entitled to care insurance benefits. Results: A projected 5.4% of all RA patients needed benefits from the nursi ng care insurance, but only 63 % of those did in fact receive benefits. It was found that unmet need was almost exclusively due to the fact that patie nts actually eligible for insurance benefits did not apply for it, whereas unjustified rejection of applications by insurance experts made up for only a marginal proportion. Conclusion: Applying for nursing care insurance benefits is still not a mat ter of course. It must be considered that about one third of all obviously care-dependent RA patients either claim care insurance benefits too late or never do. To avoid unmet need, experts should encourage particularly those patients who are unaware of their right to ask for help.