Uber Reveals New Product to Help Caregivers and Home Health Agencies

McKnight’s Senior Living | By Adam Healy
 
Rideshare technology firm Uber recently announced a new service aimed at addressing the logistical challenges faced by family members and home care agencies when providing care for older adults aging in place.
 
Uber Caregiver, revealed last week, will allow users to designate a primary caregiver who can request transportation and deliveries on the user’s behalf. The service aims to alleviate some of the logistical burdens of caregiving, like coordinating rides to appointments or arranging grocery deliveries.
 
“The notion here is to be able to engage a caregiver in a loved one’s care journey,” Zachary Clark, chief growth officer of Uber Health, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse in an interview. “We’re really kind of cognizant and aware of the 50 million Americans across the United States that identify themselves as caregivers.”
 
He added, “If the care receiver isn’t an Uber user today, but Mom and Dad or a sibling is, this is a way to kind of help an individual navigate [their care].”
 
The service will begin rolling out by late July or early August, Clark said. By the end of 2024, Uber Health plans to add tools like over-the-counter medicine delivery capabilities to the Uber Caregiver platform. The company has already ventured into health product delivery services; Uber recently partnered with Reperio, a technology startup, allowing drivers to deliver health screening kits to and from patients’ homes.
 
Users will also be able to use healthcare benefits to pay for Uber Caregiver services. Uber Health is working with Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial payers to allow their members to use their plan’s benefits to order rides or deliveries. This feature also gives consumers better visibility into their health plan’s offerings, which can often be confusing to navigate, Clark noted.
 
“You might be accessing an Uber, but that benefit might be managed through a third party broker. We want to be able to tell you that you have 22 out of your 24 rides left,” he explained. “Today all of that information resides in disparate places. And so combining that in a way that helps engage the member around what they have access to, we think, can be really powerful to create the right kinds of utilization that really we should see of these benefits. “
 
Home care and home health providers are uniquely positioned to use Uber Caregiver to their advantage, Clark said. The platform can make it easier for patients to engage with care services, he noted. It also allows family members to take a more active role in their loved one’s care, thereby reducing providers’ time spent on tasks like coordinating rides and deliveries, and increasing their opportunities for face-to-face interaction.
 
“Over time, it reduces the administrative burden for a home health or home care agency carries with them,” Clark said. “So by inviting the caregiver into that experience … it requires less of that home health or personal care coordinator over time, which helps them be more efficient and spend more time with the patient.”

ACL Releases 2023 Profile of Older Americans

The Profile of Older Americans is a summary of the available statistics related to the older population in the United States. Principal sources of data are the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Profile illustrates the shifting demographics of Americans 65 and older. It includes key topic areas such as future population growth, marital status, living arrangements, income, employment, and health.

Highlights from the Profile

• In 2022, 31.9 million women and 25.9 million men were 65 or older.
• People 65 and older represented 17.3% of the population in the year 2022. That percentage is expected to grow to 22% by 2040.
• Of older adults 65 and older living in the community, 59% lived with their spouse/partner in 2023. About 28% lived alone.
• States with the highest percentage of populations 65 and older in 2022 were Maine, Florida, Vermont, and West Virginia.
• The 2022 median income of older people was $29,740 ($37,430 for men and $24,630 for women).
• In 2023, 11.2 million Americans age 65 and older were in the labor force (working or actively seeking work).

The Profile incorporates the latest data available. Not all data are updated annually.

Access the Full Profile

CMS to Extend Review Choice Demonstration by Five Years, to Remove One of Three Choices

McKnight’s Home Care | By Liza Berger

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be extending the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD) for Home Health Services for an additional five years, effective June 1, CMS said on the Home Health, Hospice & DME Open Door Forum call on Wednesday. The demonstration will continue in the states of Illinois, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Oklahoma, an official said.

“This demonstration establishes the review choice process for home health services to assist in developing improved procedures to identify and prevent fraud, protect beneficiaries from harm, and safeguard taxpayer dollars to empower patients while minimizing unnecessary provider burden,” CMS said in a FAQ sheet about the model, which began on June 1, 2019. “The demonstration helps ensure that the right payments are made at the right time for home health service through either pre-claim or post-payment review, protects Medicare funding from improper payments, reduces the number of Medicare appeals, and improves provider compliance with Medicare program requirements.”

There have been three initial choices for agencies under the demonstration, which was slated to end on May 31. As part of the extension, CMS is removing Choice 3: Minimal Review with 25% Payment Reduction from the selections. Two remain: pre-claim review and post-payment review. Palmetto GBA, which administers Part A and Part B Medicare fee-for-service claims, will be reaching out to small numbers of affected providers to select from the two remaining choices, the CMS official said on the call. Selection will start on June 17 and remain open until July 1.

“Providers who do not make an initial review choice selection will default to participate in Choice 2: Postpayment Review,” CMS said on its website about the demonstration’s extension. “Providers with less than 10 reviews at the conclusion of the current cycle, will have their results included in the next cycle’s results.”

All other home health providers in the demonstration will continue in their current review cycles and follow their regular cycle timelines. Providers who believe their current review choice presents a “hardship” and would like to change their choice should notify Palmetto by June 14, CMS stated on the website.

Denver Rate Billing Issue

Department of Health Care Policy & Financing

Dear Home and Community-Based Services Provider,

Modifier HX is required on some Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) claims for services provided within the City and County of Denver, effective May 1, 2024. The HX modifier allows providers to bill for prior-authorized HCBS services with Denver County rates without needing to add the HX modifier to the HCBS Prior Authorization Request (PAR). The HX modifier is being added for HCBS services with Denver County rates in a phased approach.

The Adult Day Program Transportation codes for Mileage Bands 2 and 3 on the Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) waiver changed on May 1, 2024, for services provided outside the City and County of Denver. These changes allowed for the addition of the HX modifier for services provided in Denver without needing to add the HX modifier to HCBS PARs.

Claims billed without the required HX modifier will need to be adjusted.

Refer to the HCBS Billing Manuals on the Billing Manuals web page for information on the updated HCBS codes.

Thank you,

Department of Health Care Policy & Financing