To mark the 20th anniversary of the passage of landmark federal legislation to improve the quality of nursing home care (the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, known as OBRA 87), the Kaiser Family Foundation has released several new resources exploring nursing home reform in the past 20 years.
Among the resources are a new chartpack with findings from a public opinion poll, Views about the Quality of Long-Term Care Services in the United States, which finds that 68 percent of the public have an immediate family member or someone they know well receiving care as a nursing home resident, at home, or in another type of facility; 64 percent say there is not enough government regulation of nursing home quality. The nationally representative survey, with 1,032 adults including 326 adults ages 65 and older, was conducted via telephone interviews in October 2007.
The foundation also released a short film, “Nursing Home Reform: Then and Now,” that examines the history surrounding the landmark law, including the state of nursing home care before the law, an overview of the legislative process that brought about the law, and recent developments in nursing home quality.
Finally, a new report, Nursing Home Care Quality: Twenty Years After the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, was also released. The brief explains the key provisions of OBRA ’87 related to nursing home care and examines the progress and problems in quality assurance in nursing homes over the past 20 years. Access the resources.
