Table 2. Home Health Service Use, by Residential Location: 1983 and 1987.

Variable	1983			1987
	Total	Rural	Urban	Total	Rural	Urban
Home Health Use Rate	43.3	37.1	45.7	48.9	44.5	50.6
Visits per User	24.9	24.5	25.0	23.4	25.8	22.6
Total Charges per User	1,134.9	1,044.8	1,162.0	1,363.0	1,414.3	1,346.0

NOTE: Use rates are calculated as the ratio of home health users per 1,000 Medicare enrollees. For 1983, the use rates are calculated with the inclusion of the health maintenance organization (HMO) members in the denominator. For 1987, the denominator includes only 40 percent of the HMO members because 60 percent of them had risk contracts so that their home health use would not appear in the Home Health Agency 40-percent Bill Skeleton files.

SOURCES: Health Care Financing Administration, Bureau of Data Management and Strategy: Data from the 1983 and 1987 Health Insurance Skeleton Write-Off files and the Home Health Agency 40-percent Bill Skeleton files.