DataPoint: Consumer Spending on Long-Term Services and Supports

(July 16, 2024) Information compiled by KFF on long-term care shows a sizable discrepancy in consumer spending on home and community-based services (HCBS) versus institutional settings. According to KFF, an independent health policy research, polling, and news organization, more than half of the $415 billion the U.S. spent on long-term services and supports (LTSS) in 2022 was devoted to HCBS. Of the $415 billion spent on LTSS, Medicaid accounted for $255 billion in spending (61.4 percent), with $196 billion of that sum being spent on HCBS (76.9 percent). Of the three spending categories highlighted by KFF (Medicaid, out of pocket, and other payers), nursing home residents spent twice as much money out of pocket than their HCBS counterparts ($48 billion versus $23 billion). This is despite overall nursing home spending being dwarfed by HCBS spending by 116 percent. Out-of-pocket spending represented 36.6 percent of total nursing home spending versus only 8.1 percent of HCBS spending. In NYS, of the Medicaid enrollees who used any LTSS in 2021, 79 percent used only HCBS, 17 percent used only institutional LTSS, and 4 percent used both. The compilation, 10 Things About Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS), provides key national data points on LTSS and can be found here.

​​​​​​​Contact: Eric Dumas, edumas@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383