Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare, Medicaid made up 71 percent of home health spending in 2019, according to CMS.

While many home health agencies may have struggled financially in 2019, the newly released spending figures on the service show a healthy picture.

Spending for services provided by freestanding home health agencies increased 7.7 percent in 2019, a higher rate than the 5.5 percent rise in 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of the Actuary says in its 2019 National Health Expenditures report. Home health spending reached $113.5 billion in 2019, CMS reveals.

Contrast: Out-of-pocket spending grew at about half of its 2018 rate in 2019, but spending through Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance all grew at faster rates in 2019 compared to the previous year, CMS discloses. “Notably, Medicare and Medicaid together made up 71 percent of home health spending in 2019,” the agency points out.

Overall, home health had a 3 percent share of health spending in the U.S. in 2019. U.S. health care spending increased 4.6 percent to reach $3.8 trillion, or $11,582 per person in 2019, CMS says. The growth in 2019 nearly matched the growth from 2017 to 2018, which was 4.7 percent.

CMS’s highlights and its spreadsheets do not break out hospice spending.

Links to documents with more details are in the “Downloads” section online at https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical.