The role of payment source in differentiating nursing home residents, services, and payments.

In 1976, it cost $10.6 billion to care for the over one million nursing home residents in the U.S. (Gibson et al, 1977). While public and private sources spent almost equal amounts, it is widely believed that differences exist between public and private patients in terms of need for institutionalization, services received, and rates of payment for care. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of data from a national probability survey, the 1976 Survey of Institutionalized Persons (SIP), and examines variations associated with source of payment for institutionalized long-term care.