PCBF was brought to Alberta in 2010 for long-term care settings. It’s an acuity-based funding model, which determines how many hours of care each continuing care resident receives based on an assessment of their unmet needs. Under the model, a resident with frailty, dementia, and comorbidities is funded for more hours of care per day than a younger, healthier resident.

PCBF replaced previous per diem funding models, which historically provided operators with a set, daily amount of funding, regardless of the resident’s health. Per diem models have long been criticized for failing to adequately fund the higher costs associated with higher acuity (frail/ill) residents.

Today, PCBF remains the funding model for long-term care spaces in Alberta. There have also been discussions regarding modernizing the funding model across the designated supportive living (DSL) level of care.

To answer these questions, CHAA commissioned a year-long study and economic analysis on the first decade of PCBF in Alberta. The study looked at:

• The accuracy of PCBF’s inputs and assessment tools in measuring resident health needs and acuity levels.

• The extent to which PCBF appropriately funds staffing hours and labour costs to meet care needs.

• The ability of PCBF to accommodate a variety of care models and facility types/sizes, particularly for resident populations with dementia.

Our study involved analyzing a decade worth of funding advices across 19 not-for-profit care homes, representing nearly 3,000 long-term care spaces. We also analyzed collective agreements over the same period to assess how well funding lines up with actual labour costs.