Home Health & Hospice Week

But praise needs to come with reimbursement, industry advocates point out.

A top Biden administration official is saying all the right things about care in the home, but will that translate to financial support?

On Feb. 14, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra attended a roundtable discussion in Pittsburgh on affordable health care for seniors, reports the Pennsylvania Capital-Star newspaper. “You’re one of the quiet heroes in America,” Becerra told a family caregiver for a senior with chronic kidney disease. “I so admire you for taking this on for your family.”

Becerra recounted the story of his father, who died at home surrounded by family rather than going to the hospital, the Capital-Star says. “One of the things we’re trying to do at the Department of Health and Human Services is to move more toward home health care,” he said. “Because there is no place that someone who is ill, ailing, or dying would rather be than home.”

“And you know what, my dad not going to the hospital saved America a lot of money,” Becerra noted. “You’re saving America a lot of money, and so we owe you,” Becerra told the caregiver, according to the newspaper.