Home Health & Hospice Week

While policy- and lawmakers seem to be furiously throwing up roadblocks to home health growth via reimbursement reductions and regulatory barriers such as the face-to-face physician encounter requirement, the sector is one of the few healthcare types seeing reduced spending, according to a new study.

“Between 1996-1997 and 2011-2012, the number of Americans using medical services was unchanged in many categories of service, while expenditures for medical services went up in every category except primary care and home health,” says a new study from the American Academy of Family Physicians. And while utilization went up in most categories, it went down in home health and dental, found the AAFP study published in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

In an accompanying editorial, former Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Karen DeSalvo and Andrea Harris urge a move toward a “public health” model that addresses patients’ non-medical needs at home.

See the study abstract at www.annfammed.org/content/15/4/313.