IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v32y2023i2p235-276.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the impact of enforcement and compliance with minimum staffing standards on the quality of care in nursing homes: Evidence from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' staff star rating downgrade policy

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher S. Brunt

Abstract

Policymakers have historically attempted to influence quality in nursing homes through the imposition of minimum staffing standards and through the public dissemination of quality on websites like Care Compare. One current Federal standard necessitates a registered nurse (RN) on duty for at least eight consecutive hours each day. In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that they would incentivize compliance with this requirement by downgrading nursing homes with 7+ days without an RN present during the quarter by one star on their Care Compare staffing domain quality rating. This study evaluates the impact of this new enforcement mechanism. Using an intent‐to‐treat sample of nursing homes at risk for downgrade with difference‐in‐differences and event study models, it finds that the policy increased compliance and staffing levels. Using the policy to instrument for full compliance, it finds that the daily presence of an RN causally improves several quality dimensions.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher S. Brunt, 2023. "Assessing the impact of enforcement and compliance with minimum staffing standards on the quality of care in nursing homes: Evidence from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' staff star rat," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 235-276, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:235-276
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4619
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4619
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.4619?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcelo Coca Perraillon & R. Tamara Konetzka & Daifeng He & Rachel M. Werner, 2019. "Consumer Response to Composite Ratings of Nursing Home Quality," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 165-190, Spring.
    2. Douglas Staiger & James H. Stock, 1997. "Instrumental Variables Regression with Weak Instruments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 557-586, May.
    3. John R. Bowblis, 2012. "Market Structure, Competition from Assisted Living Facilities, and Quality in the Nursing Home Industry," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 238-257.
    4. Patricia K. Tong, 2011. "The effects of California minimum nurse staffing laws on nurse labor and patient mortality in skilled nursing facilities," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 802-816, July.
    5. John R. Bowblis & Andrew Ghattas, 2017. "The Impact of Minimum Quality Standard Regulations on Nursing Home Staffing, Quality, and Exit Decisions," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(1), pages 43-68, February.
    6. Haizhen Lin, 2014. "Revisiting the relationship between nurse staffing and quality of care in nursing homes: An instrumental variables approach," Working Papers 2014-01, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy.
    7. Lin, Haizhen, 2014. "Revisiting the relationship between nurse staffing and quality of care in nursing homes: An instrumental variables approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 13-24.
    8. Min M. Chen & David C. Grabowski, 2015. "Intended and Unintended Consequences of Minimum Staffing Standards for Nursing Homes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 822-839, July.
    9. Marcelo Coca Perraillon & R. Tamara Konetzka & Daifeng He & Rachel M. Werner, 2019. "Consumer Response to Composite Ratings of Nursing Home Quality," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 5(2), pages 165-190, Spring.
    10. Jordan D. Matsudaira, 2014. "Government Regulation and the Quality of Healthcare: Evidence from Minimum Staffing Legislation for Nursing Homes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(1), pages 32-72.
    11. Zhao, Xin, 2016. "Competition, information, and quality: Evidence from nursing homes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 136-152.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew C. Harris & Yinan Liu & Ian McCarthy, 2020. "Capacity constraints and time allocation in public health clinics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 324-336, March.
    2. Facchini, Gabriel, 2022. "Low staffing in the maternity ward: Keep calm and call the surgeon," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 370-394.
    3. Matthew C. Harris & Yinan Liu & Ian McCarthy, 2019. "Capacity Constraints and the Provision of Public Services: The Case of Workers in Public Health Clinics," NBER Working Papers 25706, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. John R. Bowblis & Andrew Ghattas, 2017. "The Impact of Minimum Quality Standard Regulations on Nursing Home Staffing, Quality, and Exit Decisions," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(1), pages 43-68, February.
    5. Gabriel A. Facchini Palma, 2020. "Low Staffing in the Maternity Ward: Keep Calm and Call the Surgeon," Working Papers wpdea2009, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    6. Dörte Heger & Annika Herr & Anne Mensen, 2022. "Paying for the view? How nursing home prices affect certified staffing ratios," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(8), pages 1618-1632, August.
    7. Yaa Akosa Antwi & John R. Bowblis, 2018. "The Impact of Nurse Turnover on Quality of Care and Mortality in Nursing Homes: Evidence from the Great Recession," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 131-163, Spring.
    8. John R. Bowblis & Austin C. Smith, 2021. "Occupational Licensing of Social Services and Nursing Home Quality: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 199-223, January.
    9. David Bardey & Luigi Siciliani, 2021. "Nursing‐homes' competition and distributional implications when the market is two‐sided," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 472-500, May.
    10. Mommaerts, Corina & Truskinovsky, Yulya, 2020. "The cyclicality of informal care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. John Bowblis, 2015. "The cost of regulation: More stringent staff regulations and nursing home financial performance," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 325-338, June.
    12. Atul Gupta & Sabrina T Howell & Constantine Yannelis & Abhinav Gupta, 2021. "Does Private Equity Investment in Healthcare Benefit Patients? Evidence from Nursing Homes," Working Papers 2021-20, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    13. Martin Hackmann & Joerg Heining & Roman Klimke & Maria Polyakova & Holger Seibert, 2021. "General Equilibrium Effects of Insurance Expansions: Evidence from Long-Term Care Labor Markets," Upjohn Working Papers 21-357, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    14. Norton, E.C., 2016. "Health and Long-Term Care," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 951-989, Elsevier.
    15. Sean Shenghsiu Huang & John R. Bowblis, 2018. "The principal–agent problem and owner‐managers: An instrumental variables application to nursing home quality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(11), pages 1653-1669, November.
    16. Bar, M.; & Bakx, P.; & Wouterse, B.; & van Doorslaer, Eddy.;, 2022. "Estimating the health value added by nursing homes," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/12, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    17. Furtado, Delia & Ortega, Francesc, 2020. "Does Immigration Improve Quality of Care in Nursing Homes?," IZA Discussion Papers 13552, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Bär, Marlies & Bakx, Pieter & Wouterse, Bram & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2022. "Estimating the health value added by nursing homes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 1-23.
    19. Juerg Schweri, 2021. "Predicting polytomous career choices in healthcare using probabilistic expectations data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 544-563, March.
    20. Cutler, Henry & Gu, Yuanyuan & Bilgrami, Anam & Partington, Andrew, 2023. "The 2021 proposal to increase market forces in the Australian residential aged-care sector," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 60-65.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:235-276. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.