Home Health & Hospice Week
HHAs Have 'Diseconomies Of Scale'
The home health prospective payment system has produced a population of for-profit home health agencies that have higher average costs per patient but lower costs per visit than their non-profit peers, says a new study in the latest Medicare & Medicaid Research Review, a CMS peer-re-viewed journal. For-profit agencies tend to have smaller scale operations, says the study headed up by Dana B. Mukamel with the University of Cal-ifornia Irvine Health Policy Research Institute.
"Our estimates suggest diseconomies of scale" and a cost associated with contracting for nurses, the study says. "Our findings suggest that efficiencies may be achieved by promoting non-profit, smaller agencies, with fewer contract nursing staff."
See the study online at www.cms.gov/mmrr/Downloads/MMRR2014_004_01_a03.pdf.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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