Quality of Care and Quality of Life in Nursing Facilities: What?S Regulation Got to Do with it?

Abstract

The American nursing home industry is pervasively regulated today. This article suggests that current and future nursing home residents may best be served by examining the value of regulation with a healthy skepticism, rather than automatically assuming regulation?s superiority to other potential approaches that are aimed at the same ultimate goals. Specifically, this article reviews the relatively sparse, but nevertheless helpful, literature that examines the impact of nursing home regulation. The regulatory approach is subjected to the developing analytical lens of "therapeutic jurisprudence," which, in other contexts, has asked whether legal "reforms" truly help or hurt intended beneficiaries when all relevant factors are taken into account.

JEL Classification: K32