Medicare and home health: taking stock in the COVID-19 era
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue brief (Commonwealth Fund)
- Author(s):
- Van Houtven, Courtney Harold, author Dawson, Walter D., author
- Contributor(s):
- Commonwealth Fund, issuing body.
- Publication:
- [New York, N.Y.] : The Commonwealth Fund, October 2020
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Coronavirus Infections -- epidemiology Home Care Services Medicare Pandemics United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- ISSUE. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Medicare home health has received little attention. GOALS. Understand the effects of COVID-19 on Medicare home health beneficiaries, providers, and policies, and examine changes to improve home health care during and after the pandemic. METHODS. An analysis of the current Medicare home health sector, including interviews with home health agencies, and a review of recent policy changes. KEY FINDINGS. Data on COVID-19's impact on home health are lacking. COVID-19 infection rates among Medicare beneficiaries and the workforce have not been systematically reported during the pandemic. Federal policy changes made in response to COVID-19 have provided financial support to home health agencies, expanded provider licensures to certify use of home health, facilitated wider use of telehealth, and increased flexibility in Medicare Advantage plans. CONCLUSION. Home health care is well positioned to provide services to Medicare beneficiaries. However, the current design of the Medicare home health benefit is not sufficient to meet the needs of postacute beneficiaries. Policy changes could potentially increase the value of the Medicare home health benefit in the COVID-19 era. Questions also remain about the relative quality of services, particularly among home health agencies working with Medicare Advantage plans.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (10 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101773103 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101773103