The Health Care Cost of Elder Abuse: An Analysis of Medicare, Medicaid, and Adult Protective Services Data in Maine, 2006 through 2014

The financial impact of elder abuse is not well documented. By analyzing Medicare and Medicaid claims for adults age 60 and older served by Maine's Adult Protective Services (APS), this study will substantially advance our knowledge of the financial impact of elder abuse.

In partnership with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the University of Southern Maine has access to and will analyze approximately 10,000 case files of APS investigations that were opened and completed from 2007 through 2012. The case files have detailed information about the types of abuse individuals have experienced, their functional limitations, and severity of risk status. These case files will be linked with the individuals’ Medicare and Medicaid claims data, and their claims experience will be examined one year prior to APS contact and two years after APS contact (i.e., for years 2006 through 2014).

Using a combination of descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analytic approaches, we will establish health care use and cost profiles of APS clients, analyze them by type of allegation, functional status, socio-demographic characteristics and other factors, and compare the profiles to those of the general older population.

Product: Peer-reviewed journal article documenting the health care use and cost of APS clients and abstract submissions to present at national conferences.

This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law.

ca/ncf