Expenditures for long-term care services by community elders

Costs of care are presented for elderly persons in five community-based settings. These settings include elderly persons living in their own homes or in group housing and who do or do not receive case-managed home care. Expenditures for care ranged from a low of about $1,100 per year to a high of $4,025. The level of expenditure was directly related to risk of institutionalization and was higher for those receiving case-managed home care. As a majority of the elderly use a substantial amount of care even without case management, the potential for community care demonstration programs to yield significant cost savings appears quite limited.