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Effects of Essential Caregiver Policies on Covid-19 and Non-Covid-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes

SSRN Electronic Journal
2024
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    Citations
  • 168
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Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Usage
    168
    • Abstract Views
      137
    • Downloads
      31

Article Description

Federal authorities banned nursing home visitation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there was growing concern that physical isolation may have unintended harms on nursing home residents. Thus, nursing homes and policymakers faced a tradeoff between minimizing COVID-19 outbreaks and limiting the unintended harms. Between June 2020 and January 2021, 17 states implemented Essential Caregiver policies allowing nursing home visitation by designated family members or friends under controlled circumstances. Using the Nursing Home COVID-19 Public File and other relevant data, we analyze the effects of Essential Caregiver policies on deaths among nursing home residents. We exploit variation in the existence of Essential Caregiver policies across states and over time, finding that these policies effectively reduce both non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 deaths, resulting in a decrease in total deaths. These effects are larger for states that implemented policies mandatorily or without restrictions, indicating a dose-response relationship. These policies reduce non-COVID-19 deaths in facilities with higher quality or staffing levels, while reducing COVID-19 deaths in facilities with lower quality or staffing levels. Our findings support the use and expansion of Essential Caregiver policies to balance resident safety and the need for social interaction and informal care during future pandemics.

Bibliographic Details

Mingyu Qi; Nadia Ghazali; R. Tamara Konetzka

Elsevier BV

Essential Caregiver; nursing homes residents; difference-in-differences; COVID-19

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