Home Health & Hospice Week

The recent Hospital at Home program extension included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and signed into law on Dec. 29 is just the beginning. So predict attorneys with law firm Foley & Lardner in online analysis.

Recap: In the budget legislation hammered out right before Christmas, Congress extended the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative through Dec. 31, 2024. The legislation also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to analyze hospital-at-home results compared to facility-based care and report on those findings (see HHHW, Vol. XXXII, No. 1).

The move isn’t exactly unexpected. “The industry had been anticipating this development since the spring of 2022 because, without an extension, these programs would no longer receive Medicare (and likely Medicaid) reimbursement once the public health emergency (PHE) ends,” note Foley attorneys Alan Einhorn, Olivia King, Lawrence Vernaglia, and Judith Waltz.

But it’s very welcome. “The legislation is the first statutory acknowledgement of the H@H care model, suggesting that the program may ultimately continue beyond the extended termination date and, potentially, encourage new investment and innovation in this closely-watched care delivery design,” Einhorn, King, Vernaglia, and Waltz cheer.

Plus: “The extension also provides for the collection of quality, patient experience and reimbursement data regarding H@H programs and will allow for the further assessment of the effectiveness of such programs,” the Foley attorneys note.