August 1, 2025

Welcome to the Moving Health Home newsletter!

In this monthly newsletter, you will find policy developments, research, and updates on how health care organizations are striving to shift more health care delivery into the home – meeting patient needs where they are and expanding access to quality health care.

Please send any news or events to rcheung@movinghealthhome.org for future inclusion in this newsletter.

Moving Health Home Updates

MHH: MHH Requests HHS to Pave the Way for More Seniors to Receive Care at Home (7/15) – MHH responded to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) request for comments on ensuring lawful regulation and encouraging innovation to Make America Healthy Again. MHH identified regulations that would align Medicare reimbursement for expanded home-based services if rescinded. MHH believes that removing these regulations should enable innovative models of care centered around the home.

MedCity News: New Legislation Seeks to Preserve Hospital-at-Home Reimbursement Until 2030 (7/11) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act that would extend hospital at home programs for an additional five years. The bill has received support from several groups representing providers and patients, including Moving Health Home. “CMS itself found hospital-at-home saved an average of almost $2,000 per patient when compared to inpatient care. It’s time to finally give it long term access to this life-saving model of care,” Krista Drobac, founder of Moving Health Home, said in a statement.

Home Health Care News: New Bill Would Extend Hospital at Home Waiver Through 2030 (7/10) – Moving Health Home cheered the introduction of the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, citing that patients are more comfortable in their homes and that hospital-at-home programs save money. “The AHCAH program is a continuation of standing, bipartisan policy over the last five years and will not lead to new costs."

Administration

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): FY 2026 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) (7/31) - CMS released the IPPS final rule, which updates Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient and long-term care hospitals. CMS generally finalized the provisions related to TEAM and provided a summary of responses to the Medicare digital quality measurement (dQM) RFI, which CMS notes will inform future rulemaking. Notably, CMS includes ASTP/ONC’s Electronic Prescribing, Real-Time Prescription Benefit and Electronic Prior Authorization (HTI-4), which advances providers’ ability to engage in electronic prescribing, real-time prescription benefit checks, and electronic prior authorization, which may impact home-based care providers. 

CMS: CMS Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative (7/31) - The White House and CMS jointly held an event, Make Health Tech Great Again, during which the Administration made several announcements, including the CMS Interoperability framework and a series of entity-specific voluntary pledges. Data networks, health systems and providers, and EHRs voluntarily pledged to implement the CMS Interoperability Framework, while payers and patient-facing apps pledged to participate in, connect to, or otherwise enable information sharing with CMS Aligned Networks implementing the CMS Interoperability Framework. Interoperability is necessary for the future of care in the home.

CMS: Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Proposed Rule (7/14) – CMS issued a proposed rule which proses payment rate and policy changes to the PFS effective January 1, 2026. CMS proposes adding new codes for Remote Physiologic Monitoring and Remote Therapeutic Monitoring; creating a new Ambulatory Specialty Model; testing coverage of an Online delivery modality for the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program; simplifying and accelerating its telehealth services list review process; and expanding services allowed under direct supervision. CMS is issuing a Chronic Disease Request for Information (RFI) and is requesting public comments on paying for software as a service under PFS. Comments on the PFS are due on September 12, 2025.

Congress

Senate: Introduction of Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act (7/10) – Sens. Scott (R-SC), Warnock (D-GA), Tillis (R-NC), Smith (D-MN), Blackburn (R-TN), and Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act (S. 2237), which would extend acute hospital care at home waiver flexibilities. Reps. Buchanan (R-FL), Smucker (R-PA), and Evans (D-PA) introduced companion legislation (H.R. 4313) in the House. Additional coverage can be found Inside Health Policy, Healthcare Innovation, MedCity News, Home Health Care News, NASDAQ, McKnights Home Care, HomeCare Magazine.

Congress: Permanent Access to Commercial Market Telehealth (7/4) – On July 3, 2025, Congress passed H.R. 1, which includes Section 71306, allowing for permanent extension of this important telehealth policy. After many years of advocacy, over 32 million individuals will be able to permanently receive pre-deductible coverage of telehealth services. Learn more what this means for you.

House: Introduction of CONNECT for Health Act (6/26) – Reps. Thompson (D-CA), Schweikert (R-AZ), Matsui (D-CA), and Balderson (R-OH) introduced the CONNECT for Health Act (H.R. 4206), which aims to expand access to telehealth services. Sens. Schatz (D-HI), Wicker (R-MS), Warner (D-VA), Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Welch (D-VT), and Barrasso (R-WY) introduced the companion bill in the Senate (S. 1261) on April 2.

Research and Polling

AARP: Caregiving in the US (7/24) – AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) released their annual Caregiving the US report. The report revealed that nearly one in four Americans has served as a family caregiver in the past year. Caregivers manage financial risks, their own poor health, and isolation. AARP and NAC called for federal policies to support caregivers including national paid family and medical leave, federal tax credits, training and support services, and workplace protections.

Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Clinical and Engagement Results of a Nationwide Comprehensive Remote Patient Care Hypertension Program (7/23) – This study aimed to determine whether a remote patient care (RPC) hypertension program can provide a scalable solution for optimizing hypertension management, especially among rural/underserved patients. Using vitals automatically transmitted from a cellular-enabled blood pressure (BP) cuff and scheduled visits, clinicians leveraged technology-enabled clinical protocols to drive engagement and improve hypertension control. A nationwide RPC hypertension program can drive high patient engagement and facilitate clinical encounters at scale, resulting in reduced BP levels and more patients achieving BP goals across the United States.

JAMA: Older Adults Are Spending Too Long in the ED (7/18) -For older adults, every hour spent in an ED can increase the risk of immobility and delirium. ED lengths of stay may be prolonged for thorough medical evaluations. But boarding times—the wait between the decision to admit and the actual admission to an inpatient bed—are determined by bed capacity and other hospital-level factors. Hospital-at-home can help address boarding. The program has been shown to save lives, and is more cost-effective than an ED visit for certain conditions.

Nursing Outlook: Emerging Technologies in Home-Based Care Delivery Models (7/17) – Emerging digital technologies are driving a shift toward home-based care models. Advancing home-based care models through technology is a key research priority. The authors found common technologies included wearable devices (31%), apps (28%), and remote patient monitoring (26%) utilized. Prevalent care models were person-centered self-care and the continuum of care.

Health Affairs Scholar: The Potential for Patient-Reported Data and Narratives to Improve Quality during Emergency Department Boarding (7/7) – This research, based on emergency department (ED) patient experience surveys, showed that longer ED stays result in lower patient-reported quality. Other nationwide surveys that assess patient experience can be used to improve ED boarding practices.

Health Affairs Scholar: Workforce Impact of Emergency Department Boarding (7/4) – This study, based on a survey of American Academy of Emergency Medicine members, highlighted the adverse outcomes of boarding. Common themes included frustration and burnout; verbal and physical abuse; moral injury tied to profit-driven decision-making; and impacts on clinical care and patient outcomes.

BMC Health Services Research: Facilitators and Barriers to Provision of Hospital in the Home: Does Geographical Location Matter? (7/1) – This literature review revealed that while some facets of hospital at home delivery, such as workflow and patient selection, are not specific to rural contexts, many other facilitators and barriers vary based on geography. Rural models of care and rural community strengths, including resourcefulness, social capital, and reciprocity proved to be facilitators to hospital at home provision. Meanwhile, rural-specific barriers included travel distances, costs, and challenging weather or terrain.

Journal of Hospital Medicine: Collaborative Development of a Rules-Based Electronic Health Record Algorithm for Hospital-at-Home Eligibility (6/29) – This article reports findings from Atrium Health’s implementation of a rules-based algorithm using EHR data to improve hospital-at-home (HaH) patient identification. The program improved efficiency of identifying patients by effectively screening out clearly ineligible patients, leaving fewer patients for physicians to manually screen. While this intervention reduced clinical time spent on patient identification, it required time spent on creating the rules-based algorithm from clinical staff.

News and Market Developments

Home Health Care News: Health Care Organizations Unite to Advance Hospital-at-Home Programs with Implementation Framework (7/22) – Connected Health Collaborative Community (CHcc), Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), and Consumer Technology Association (CTA) launched a framework to help providers develop hospital at home programs. The coalition has partnered with digital health solutions company Vivalink to release the implementation blueprint.

Becker’s Health IT: Mayo Clinic’s Expanding Hospital at Home Strategy (7/22) – Mayo Clinic has seen thousands of patients under their hospital at home model and is continuing to expand its reach to other hospitals in the network. One of the system’s clinical trials is taking place in Grand Forks, North Dakota where Mayo Clinic stood up a hospital at home program to delivery cancer care in the home. Mayo Clinic was able to develop the new model of care in a faster timeline with equal or better outcomes.

Home Health Care News: High Rates, High Stakes: Inside the ‘Wild West’ of Home-Based Wound Care (7/15) – As demand for wound care at home increases, investors and providers have begun to focus more on the service especially given high Medicare reimbursement rates. Providers who integrate specialized wound care into in-home services are able to tap into new referral pipelines, improve outcomes, and unlock new reimbursement pathways. The service comes with significant risks including high costs, requirements, and levels of care.

Becker’s Health IT: Hackensack Meridian Health Expands Hospital at Home to Five Hospitals (7/7) – New Jersey-based Hackensack Meridian Health will expand its hospital at home program to two more hospitals, adding to its three existing programs. The system aims to grow hospital at home to all 18 of its hospitals.

HomeCare: Building the Future of Health Care with Distributed Models (7/8) – Given the benefits of hospital at home models, short-term waiver extensions are inadequate mechanisms to fund continued evaluation of the health care system. Instead, this article proposes the adoption and expansion of distributed care built on three core capabilities: medical management, patient and workforce experience, and value-aligned contracting.

Becker’s Health IT: Hospital at Home ‘Isn’t Dying’ Despite Vendor Exits (7/3) – Health care leaders believe that hospital at home is “shedding its tech tourism phase,” leaving health systems and digital health companies interested in and effective at delivering high quality care at home. Leaders from Mayo Clinic, Mass General Brigham, and AdventHealth shared their continued confidence in the model’s ability to provide high-quality care at home.

National Academies: Improving Support for Family Caregivers (7/2) – Policies that support family caregivers must be implemented to address the high emotional, physical, and financial burdens they face. Expanding the use of respite care, integrating caregivers into health care systems, lessening the financial tool, and helping young caregivers should be focal points in caregiver support policy.

Sanford Health: Sustainable Home Care Needs Caregivers, Lawmaker Support (7/1) – In a podcast hosted by Stanford Health, participants speak about the success of home care agencies when connected to hospital systems. Health care sector alignment offers an opportunity for home health agencies to be part of a continuum of care.

Home Health Care News: Home-Based Care Providers Identify, Overcome ‘Data Deserts’ To Save Costs, Improve Outcomes (6/30) – Home-based providers use data to demonstrate the value of at-home care, but these capabilities are limited when there are gaps in the ability to collect, access, or analyze data. Identifying and resolving data availability gaps can lead to cost savings, improved patient satisfaction, and enhanced outcomes. Companies have addressed these data deserts by training staff and upgrading software.

Becker’s Health IT: Hospital-at-Home Staffing Models Evolve (6/27) – With the continued growth of the hospital at home market, models are shifting towards hybrid or virtual provider care to ensure sustainability and scalability. As providers become more comfortable with virtual care delivered in the home, health systems are seeing new efficiencies in care provision.

Future Market Insights: Home Infusion Therapy Devices Market to Grow from $2.6B in 2025 to $4.8B by 2035 (6/27) – A global move towards home-based care to address rising rates of chronic illnesses is accelerating the industry’s growth, projected to grow 6.4 percent by 2035. The shift towards decentralizing care has been reinforced by advancements in remote monitoring and telehealth to provide cost-effective, high quality treatment at home. The growth, from $2.6 billion in 2025 to $4.8 billion in 2035, is indicative of increased uptake of care at home modalities.

HealthLeaders: Defining the Benefits of the Hospital at Home Strategy (6/27) – Leaders from Mass General Brigham, Atrium Health, and Ochsner Health discussed how hospital at home improves outcomes, reduce costs, and boosts patient satisfaction, as well as its potential to be a key element of value-based care. Each of the health systems offer a variation of the hospital at home, contributing to a growing movement to take patients out of crowded hospitals.

Upcoming Events

August 28, CHiME, "Hospital at Home Technology Summit." 

September 15-17, Home Health Care News, "FUTURE Conference." 

October 16, Hospital @ Home Users Group, "2025 Annual Meeting." 

October 20-21, Home Care Association of America, "2025 National Home Care Conference." 

December 3-5, Hospital @ Home Leadership Summit, "Embracing the Future of Healthcare."

Please subscribe to this newsletter and send any news or events to rcheung@movinghealthhome.org for inclusion in this newsletter.