Study on Cost of Institutional Care for MS Patients

Posted April 2, 2014

A recent article in the journal Multiple Sclerosis International reviewed considerable data on the costs of institutional care for MS and concluded that caring for patients with multiple sclerosis is no more expensive than it is for other patients.

“If we look at cost, there is no evidence that their cost profile of use of services are outside of range of other nursing home residents,” said lead researcher Katia Noyes, PhD, MPH, professor of surgery and public health sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y. Noyes and her team did note at the end of the article that there is no way to know whether institutional pressure to keep cost-per-patient even is resulting in fewer services for people with MS.

Administrators in the trenches don’t agree with all of the study findings. Marva Serotkin, MHP, president and CEO of The Boston Home, a residence and center for care for adults with neurological conditions including MS, said that she was concerned that the data used in the study did not reflect the true costs associated with caring for people with MS. (The Boston Home has the NMSS designation of Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Long-Care.)

View the Journal Article Here

(Article taken from Everyday Health)