Medicaid reimbursement and the quality of nursing home care

An influential series of papers have found that an increase in Medicaid rei mbursement decreases the level of nursing home quality in the presence of c ertificate-of-need (CON) and construction moratorium regulations. Using mor e recent national data, an outcome-oriented measure of quality, and an alte rnative methodology, this study finds a positive, albeit small, effect of r eimbursement on quality. Although this paper does find some evidence of exc ess demand within the market for nursing home care, this new finding is att ributed to a decline in nursing home utilization over the last two decades. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.