Home Health & Hospice Week

Care in the home is effective and desired by beneficiaries, advocates stress.

All eyes are on Congress as the fate of the Hospital at Home waiver hangs in the balance.

Recap: Medicare’s Hospital At Home waiver, which was created during the COVID-19 public health emergency, is scheduled to end on Dec. 31, 2024. That will leave the many H@H programs that hospitals have launched high and dry. Lawmakers have introduced the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act of 2024 (S.4350/H.R. 8260), which will extend the waiver for five more years.

“H@H programs provide a safe and innovative way to care for patients in the comfort of their homes,” the American Hospital Association says in May 23 letters thanking the bill’s sponsors in the House and Senate. “This kind of care is well suited for medium-acuity patients who need hospital-level care but are considered stable enough to be safely monitored and treated ... while in the comfort of their own home,” the AHA emphasizes.

“The hospital at home waiver program has been an impressive success, improving patient outcomes, lowering costs, and reducing the burden on hospitals,” maintains the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. “The vast majority of Americans prefer to age in place, in their own homes and communities, and the hospital at home program enables providers to deliver hospital-level care to Medicare beneficiaries in the comfort of their own homes,” NAHC praises on its website.

“The Acute Hospital at Home waiver program exemplifies the breadth and depth of quality health care that is now available in the home and demonstrates that the continuum of care should be based solely on the needs of the patient, not by the site of care,” NAHC President William Dombi says in a statement. “Extending the program creates stability for providers and patients alike.”

Currently, 330 hospitals across 136 systems in 37 states are approved to take part in the waiver program, NAHC reports.