News and Market Developments
Home Health Care News: AccentCare Forms Joint Venture With Memorial Hermann (4/3) - AccentCare announced a joint venture with Memorial Hermann Health System to expand access to care in the home throughout the greater Houston area. Specifically, it will combine the two agencies formerly known as Texas Home Health and Season Hospice & Palliative Care, as well as Memorial Hermann, into one home-based care entity.
Michigan State Medical Society: Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) Considerations for Telehealth Care (4/3) - Although the use of telehealth for routine care is slowing down, RPM is gaining popularity in chronic disease management and hospital-at-home care. The ability to automate data collection and transmission makes advanced RPM ideal for hospital-at-home management, particularly for patients waiting for transplants, high-risk pregnancies, and infants who need cardiac surgery but must reach developmental milestones before surgery can proceed.
Modern Health Care: How Transitioning Care to the Home Enhances Patient Outcomes and Long-Term Performance (4/1) - Organizations are prioritizing more sustainable, efficient, and patient-centered approaches to care delivery. Specifically, many are finding that remote care at home programs allow for proactive patient management, across the care continuum. These programs are beneficial not only for patients moving from the acute setting to post-acute care, but also for the chronically ill.
“Over the next decade, hospital at home will become part of our mainstream care as a delivery option for patients,” said Dr. Tahir Haque, Senior Medical Director at Biofourmis. “If you are a health system considering a remote care at home program, there will be some growing pains initially to overcome. But it will be well worth it – both clinically and financially. If you are a clinician, please consider practicing in a care at home model if appropriate for your specialty – it will be one of the most rewarding things you do in your career.”
PR Newswire: Tomorrow Health Modernizes Home-Based Care Operations For Medicaid Managed Care Plans (3/30) - Tomorrow Health, a home-based care provider, announced technology to improve home-based care operations for Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). Tomorrow Health's technology can streamline the workflow of the home-based care ordering process for Medicaid MCOs. Tomorrow Health's technology creates a tailor-made, one-stop-shop for coordinators at Medicaid MCOs who are managing multiple member cases.
Business Wire: Holland Physician-Hospital Organization (PHO) and agilon health Form Partnership to Expand the Delivery of Value-based Primary Care in West Michigan (3/30) - Holland PHO announced it will enter a long-term partnership with agilon health, inc. to expand access to value-based primary care in the area.
Chief Healthcare Executive: ‘Project Pink Floyd’: Best Buy Health, Atrium Health Team Up on Hospital at Home (3/29) - During the ViVE conference, Best Buy Health acknowledged its partnership with Atrium Health to improve the hospital-at-home experience. Best Buy Health and Atrium can build on their strengths to make a more efficient and effective hospital-at-home program. With the program, Best Buy’s famed “Geek Squad” will be deployed to help people utilize the devices that track their vital signs.
Home Health Care News: Why Certain Home Care Providers Are Seeing Success In Medicare Advantage (3/29) - The Helper Bees (THB), a home health care service, works with payers and providers across the country to take the complexity out of care delivery. Andy Friedell – the founder and CEO of healthAlign, and now COO of The Helper Bees – believes that the next policy revolution in home-based care will be due to the supplemental benefit changes made by CMS within the last five years. Friedell sat down with Home Health Care News on the latest edition of HHCN+ Talks to discuss what he’s learned about MA-home care provider relationships, and how he thinks the landscape will evolve over time.
Becker's Hospital Review: Minnesota Health System Expands Hospital at Home to More Than 5,000 Patients (3/29) - Minneapolis-based Allina Health has greatly expanded remote patient monitoring since launching hospital-at-home company, Inbound Health, in October 2022. The health system has treated more than 5,000 patients with 350-plus diagnoses using biometric monitoring, virtual visits with hospitalists and geriatricians, digital surveillance, and in-home nurses and therapy. Inbound Health says it has lowered the cost of care by 30 to 40 percent on a risk-adjusted basis, with similar or improved outcomes, and outperformed brick-and-mortar post-acute facilities in preventing hospital readmissions. For additional coverage, see Home Health Care News.
Chief Healthcare Executive: Maulik Majmudar of Biofourmis Talks About Hospital at Home (3/28) - As a cardiologist, Maulik Majmudar understands the need to be cautious when it comes to patients. But Majmudar, the chief medical officer and co-founder of Biofourmis, says there’s plenty of evidence showing that hospital-at-home programs can be safe and effective. The Boston-based firm is working with more than 30 hospitals to deliver care in the home. Majmudar talked with Chief Healthcare Executive about hospital-at-home programs and outlined some of the keys to success and the company’s recent experience in delivering acute care in rural areas of West Virginia and Kentucky.
Fierce Healthcare: Everly Health Builds Out Virtual Care Program Integrated with At-Home Testing (3/28) - At the ViVE conference, Everly Health unveiled a new virtual care program that integrates lab testing with telehealth visits to evaluate health conditions including COVID-19, flu, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), thyroid, weight management, and men’s and women’s health. The virtual visits cost $59 for consumers paying out of pocket and $10 to $50 when billed through insurance, according to the company.
Home Care Magazine: National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) Secures New Home Infusion Service HCPCS Code for Injectable Immunotherapies (3/24) - The NHIA announced it successfully petitioned CMS to secure a new billing code for injectable immunotherapies and revise an existing code to facilitate administration of a wider range of monoclonal antibodies for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The request is part of a broader effort to modernize the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS code) set used by commercial health plans, including some Medicare Advantage and Medicaid programs, to reimburse for infusion services.
NPR: Hospital Stays Are Hard. What If You Could Get Care At Home? (3/23) - The concept of “hospital at home” has been around for decades. Dozens of randomized controlled trials have found lower mortality rates, readmission rates and costs for hospital-at-home patients. Policymakers and supporters believe paying for hospital-at-home at the same level as an inpatient stay was necessary to convince hospitals to make the initial investments. There is now significant interest, including from hospitals, in figuring out a more appropriate long-term payment model.
Health Leaders: Five Lessons From Building An Acute-Care-at-Home Program (3/22) - New programs like Hospital-at-Home and Acute-Care-at-Home are giving health systems an opportunity to reduce inpatient traffic and give patients the care they need in their own homes. These programs combine telehealth and remote patient monitoring concepts and technologies with in-person care, all managed by care teams based at the health system. Federal support for these programs, including waivers and guidelines established by CMS during the pandemic, is important to ensure their success.
Home Health Care News: At-Home Primary Care Provider MD at Home Is Ready To Take Its Model Nationwide (3/21) - While many providers in the larger home-based care space have struggled with collecting data, MD at Home, an at-home primary care provider, considers data utilization one of the pillars of its success. MD at Home provides primary care to about 7,000 homebound patients in the Chicagoland area. It mostly serves a low-income patient population, most of which are Medicare/Medicaid eligible.
McKnights Home Care: Payers Will Drive Care to the Home (3/20) - Home is the future for high-acuity care and the government won’t be driving the trend; payers will. Hospital-at-home expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic through the CMS Acute Care at Home waiver program. Nearly 400 hospital systems and hospitals are participating in the program. However, the Medicare waiver program is set to expire at the end of 2024, with no guarantees that CMS will approve a long-term program offering greater flexibility of care in the home.
PR Newswire: MedArrive Partners with Ouma to Bring In-Home Maternal Care to Vulnerable Medicaid Members (3/20) - MedArrive announced a partnership with Ouma Health to bring comprehensive maternal-fetal care directly into the homes of vulnerable women on Medicaid. The collaboration aims to improve the health of pregnant women and their newborns, especially those at high risk. The MedArrive care management team visits the homes of enrolled members on behalf of their plan, providing a mix of in-home health care services, diagnostics, health assessments and other preventive health measures – while also addressing social care needs like transportation, mobility or nutrition assistance. For additional coverage, see Fierce Healthcare.
MedCity News: Providence, Luna Partner to Provide Patients At-Home Physical Therapy (3/19) - Providence launched a program to expand its patients’ access to in-home physical therapy. The health system launched the initiative in partnership with Luna, a provider of in-home outpatient physical therapy that serves patients in nearly 30 states. Using Luna’s technology platform, Providence clinicians will match their patients to Luna’s therapists based on factors such as specialty, geography and schedules.
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