Assessing the impact of Minnesota's return to community initiative for newly admitted nursing home residents

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate Minnesota's Return to Community Initiative's (RTCI) impact on community discharges from nursing homes. DATA SOURCES: Secondary data were from the Minimum Data Set and RTCI staff (April 2014 – December 2016). The sample consisted of 18 444 non‐Medicaid nursing home admissions in Minnesota remaining for at least 45 days, with high predicted probability of community discharge. STUDY DESIGN: The RTCI facilitates community discharge for non‐Medicaid nursing home residents by assisting with discharge planning, transitioning to the community, and postdischarge follow‐up. A key evaluation question is how many of those transitions were directly attributable to the program. Return to Community Initiative was implemented statewide without a control group. Program impact was measured using regression discontinuity, a quasi‐experimental design approach that leverages the programs targeting model. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Return to Community Initiative increased community discharge rates by an estimated 11 percent (P