Therapy’s Future Under Patient-Driven Groupings Model Unclear Due to COVID-19 Chaos

Home Health Care News 
By Andrew Donlan | March 7, 2021
 
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) was described as home health care’s “boogeyman” before it was implemented.
 
One of the chief concerns, especially for therapists, was that therapy utilization would significantly decrease in 2020 — and beyond — because of what PDGM incentivizes. 
 
But preliminary data suggests that therapy did not decrease overall in 2020. It’s not that those who predicted a dramatic decrease in therapy were wrong, however. Instead, the answer is more nuanced. For a variety of reasons, therapy increased in some places — and decreased in others.
 
From January to October, in fact, the percentage of therapy visits compared to overall visits actually increased, from 45.9% to 46.8%, according to data from BlackTree Healthcare Consulting. Therapy visits per episode also increased slightly. 
 
“From my perspective, I think there [are] just so many variables that have figured into therapy utilization during the pandemic,” Mission Healthcare CEO Paul VerHoeve told Home Health Care News last week during HHCN’s PDGM Summit. 

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