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News and Market Developments
PR Newswire: OhioHealth and Compassus Finalize Partnership for Home Health and Hospice (9/4) – Compassus, a national provider of integrated home-based care services, and OhioHealth, a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable health care network, announced the finalization of their partnership for home health and hospice services to be called OhioHealth at Home in partnership with Compassus. Under this partnership, Compassus has acquired ownership interest in three hospice locations and four home health locations that were formerly led by OhioHealth.
EIN Newswires: Acara Healthcare Appoints Kerri Pendley as New Chief Operating Officer (9/3) - Acara, a provider in home health care services, announced the appointment of Kerri Pendley as its new Chief Operating Officer effective July 8th. Kerri brings more than two decades of experience in the health care industry, with invaluable expertise in health care operations, administration, and business development.
Home Health Care News: How Home Health Valuations Are Shaping Up In 2024 (9/3) - The home health sector offers an attractive investment opportunity, but also comes with challenges. It is poised to benefit from an aging population and the shift toward value-based care, however, it is also influenced by factors such as rising interest rates, reimbursement difficulties and staffing shortages, all of which have affected the M&A market.
Home Health Care News: Help at Home Plans To Double Down On Home Care, Expand Service Area In Near-Term Future
(9/3) - Help at Home is doubling down on personal home care services. Based in Chicago, Help at Home has more than 180 branch locations across 11 states. It provides personal care services to more than 66,000 clients via more than 53,000 caregivers. Help at Home’s focus on home care hasn’t prevented the company from thinking of ways to supplement these services, however. During a recent conversation with Home Health Care News, which took place at the FUTURE conference last month, Help at Home President Tim O’Rourke explained how the company is looking to form partnerships that allow them to offer services, such as meal delivery or transportation.
Penn Medicine News: The Road to Recovery Begins at Home (8/27) – Penn Medicine at Home launched in early 2023, available to patients who had elective surgery on a major lower joint. The program is currently available to a limited, but growing, number of Penn Medicine patients, based on their diagnosis and hospital location. To date, SNF at Home has served 90 patients who have had hip or knee replacement at Penn Presbyterian or Pennsylvania Hospital, or geriatric hip fracture treatment at Penn Presbyterian. In addition, 48 patients discharged from Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, recovering from a stroke, have also received treatment through the program.
The Wall Street Journal: What Will Happen to Hospital-at-Home Care? (8/25) - As the primary health care setting continues to shift away from institutional care to more home-based care, it is critical that consumers understand the full spectrum of home-care options available to them. While the continuation of hospital at home beyond year-end is dependent on legislative action, home-based primary care, home-based hospice or palliative care and home health will continue to be available.
Modern Healthcare: Keeping Homebound Adults Out Of The Hospital Challenges Payers (8/23) - Around 8 million Medicare-eligible adults have two or more chronic conditions and functional impairments that make it hard for them to leave their homes to seek health care. However, providing regular, home-based primary care to manage these complex patients can be difficult and unprofitable for providers through traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Home-based primary care practices are trying to negotiate value-based contracts with Medicare Advantage organizations.
Mass General Birmingham: Mass General Brigham Home Hospital Hits Major Capacity Milestone to Meet Growing Demand
(8/22) - Mass General Brigham’s Home Hospital has reached a capacity milestone of 70 beds with expanded capabilities to support more patients at home, making it the largest Home Hospital in the country. This capacity increase has been possible thanks to the expanded size of the clinical care teams, the creation of dedicated roles within Home Hospital, the incorporation of medical assistants into the care model and the expansion of Mass General Brigham Ambulance Services in Salem and Dedham to meet the growing demand of in-home services.
MedM: Hospital at Home App Built With MedM SDK
(8/22) - MedM announced a collaborative project with Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, where students have developed a prototype for a "Hospital at Home" web application for Union Health. This innovative solution helps track patients’ vital signs and other physiological parameters in an outpatient setting. Medical data, collected via MedM’s SDK from connected devices, can be securely transferred multiple times daily to health care providers, including doctors' offices, hospitals, or other health care facilities.
The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals’ New Push: Treating Patients In Their Homes (8/13) - Around the country, more than 300 hospitals are deploying or preparing to dispatch paramedics, nurse practitioners and other medical staff to treat patients at home instead of in hospital settings, a service widely referred to as hospital at home. The efforts are part of a nationwide experiment that began with the pandemic, when hospitals were overcrowded and under financial strain. The pandemic-era program was open to patients in fee-for-service Medicare. Medicare won’t pay for at-home care after December, unless Congress votes to continue the program. Despite this, home services have grown under the federal insurer for the elderly and disabled. Some commercial insurers, including Medicare Advantage, also cover hospital-at-home services, according to hospitals and insurers.
Fierce Healthcare: Vivid Health Brings Generative AI Into Home Health Care, Hospital-at-Home Services (8/13) - Vivid Health is launching into the at-home care market to help clinical staff more efficiently fill out required, but time-consuming, assessment forms, reduce staff burnout and increase capacity. The multispecialty care management platform, launched in 2023, is in use at North Carolina accountable care organization (ACO) WakeMed Key Community Care. Vivid is working to implement its solution in three organizations that do home health care or hospital-at-home care.
Fortune Well: Home Medical Devices Pose Risks For Medicare Beneficiaries And Their Caregivers (8/9): Increasingly popular home medical devices can be a huge help for Medicare beneficiaries (particularly ones with chronic conditions) and their family caregivers. The devices offer vital health assistance and treatment in a comfortable, convenient setting and are often used in hospital at home programs. But these devices—known as durable medical equipment in Medicare Part B parlance and ranging from infusion pumps to nebulizers to CPAP machines to home dialysis machines—also come with five potential problems for users and caregivers.
MedPage Today: Extend the Hospital-at-Home Waiver Before It's Too Late — Older Adults Should Continue to Receive Care Where They Feel and Heal Their Best (8/7) - In November 2020, with the COVID pandemic severely stressing hospital capacity, CMS implemented the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver and enabled hospitals and health systems to deliver hospital-level care in patients' homes. Since the authorization, more than 300 hospitals in 37 states have obtained this payment waiver. The waiver was due to expire at the end of the pandemic-associated public health emergency, but Congress extended the waiver. However, without additional congressional action, the waiver and the ability of hospitals to deliver acute hospital care in patients' homes will expire at the end of 2024. It's time to extend the waiver once again and continue to expand access to innovative hospital-at-home care.
Home Health Care News: BrightSpring Touts ‘Integrated’ Value Of Its Home-Based Care Services (8/2) - BrightSpring Health Services delivers preventative care to seniors, and specialty patients, in the home. The company focuses on complex populations, offering primary care, home- and community-based services, pharmacy services and rehab services to over 400,000 consumers throughout 50 states.
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