Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare’s spending slowdown on home health is showing up in the program’s overall expenditure stats.

“Spending for services provided by freestanding home health care agencies increased 6.0 percent in 2022 to $132.9 billion, accelerating from growth of 0.3 percent in 2021,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a release about the figures. “Private health insurance, out-of-pocket, and Medicaid home health spending contributed to the faster growth, while Medicare spending growth for home health care services slowed,” CMS details.

“U.S. health care spending grew 4.1 percent to reach $4.5 trillion in 2022, faster than the increase of 3.2 percent in 2021, but much slower than the rate of 10.6 percent in 2020,” the agency highlights.