Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare beneficiaries will receive more care at home under a new demonstration, but the care won't come via home health agencies. The new Independence at Home Demonstration "greatly expands the scope of in-home services Medicare beneficiaries can receive" by providing chronically ill patients with a complete range of primary care services" from physicians and nurse practitioners in medical practices, CMS says in a release. Up to 50 practices will be selected and each must serve at least 200 Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations, CMS explains. Home care opportunity: "Practices in the demonstration will be responsible for coordinating patient care with other health and social service professionals," CMS notes. Participants will receive an incentive payment if they provide high quality care and reduce Medicare spending. Applications are due Feb. 6. More information on the demo is at www.cms.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/downloads/IAH_FactSheet.pdf.