Health Systems Advocate for Continued Hospital-at-Home Care Delivery

Health Tech Magazine
 
After two years of shifting care models to meet patients in their home, some of the top healthcare organizations are advocating to continue reimbursement for hospital-level home care. In February, more than 15 U.S. healthcare providers formed the Advanced Care at Home Coalition to push the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for a care model that focuses on at-home care.
 
The coalition is compiling best practices, and points out that costs, comfort and improved care make their case for more robust home-based care. For example, a study by the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that the cost of care for at-home patients is nearly half that of hospitalized patients.
 
“Advanced-care-at-home programs are based on a growing body of evidence that show patients are more satisfied with their care and family stress is reduced,” says Dr. Stephen Parodi, associate executive director, The Permanente Medical Group at coalition member Kaiser Permanente. “Patient functional mobility and activity tends to be higher, and quality outcomes are the same or better than being in a hospital.”
 
The Need to Continue Care at Home
 
Since 2020, hospital beds have been filled with patients battling COVID-19, and providers have found it safer to provide many patients with home-based care plans for a range of treatments, including infusions, skilled nursing, medications, laboratory and imaging services, behavioral health and rehabilitation services.
 
Dr. Pippa Shulman, chief medical officer for coalition member Medically Home, says at least 20 percent of hospitalized patients could safely be treated and monitored from their homes. Shulman adds that benefits vary based on the patient and the provider, but overall home treatment allows hospitals to safely care for more people.
 
“One vantage point is that hospital-at-home programs enable health systems to add capacity to their systems and care for more patients without incurring the sometimes-prohibitive costs associated with adding bed capacity inside their facilities,” Shulman says. 

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