What is the effect of Medicare HMOs on long term care costs?
About 34% of Arizona Medicare beneficiaries receive their medical care from HMOs (only Oregon and California report higher rates of HMO coverage for Medicare benefits). Although the common perception is that Medicare HMOs are less likely to cover long term care costs than “traditional” Medicare coverage, HMOs are required to provide long term care under exactly the same terms as those governing non-HMO Medicare recipients. So far, data on the actual utilization of long term care under Medicare HMOs is inconclusive or lacking, despite the popular perception of non-coverage.
