The Medicare Advantage (MA) carve-in that many industry insiders pegged as “inevitable” has finally arrived. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) on Friday morning announced it is expanding the MA Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model, using VBID to test out several wide-ranging updates to MA offerings, including a hospice carve-in set to take […]
Content Type: Featured
By offering transportation services, home care agencies can help clients get to important medical appointments and, at times, boost revenue. But doing so can also act as a powerful foot in the door when it comes to establishing relationships with hospitals and other community partners. About one in five older adults give up driving after […]
Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), one of the largest independent home health care companies in the country, had a successful 2018 and is looking to maintain the momentum in the year ahead. The company’s ambitions include a heightened focus on risk-taking arrangements with payers and building on the tech investment it made in […]
Technology startup Heal is teaming up with insurance giant Aetna — now a CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) company — to bring doctor house calls to one of the United States’ largest markets. Already available throughout California, parts of Virginia and Washington, D.C., Los Angeles-based Heal announced Tuesday that it is expanding to the Atlanta […]
Shortly after Jocelyn Mayo founded Pampering Plus, a Pennsylvania-based company that provides medical and nonmedical at-home services, a caregiver and private-pay client struck a deal to continue working together while cutting the agency out of the picture. Luckily, buyout agreements previously made with both parties helped Mayo recoup some of her losses. “[The client] paid […]
2018 was a banner year for the Medicare-certified home health care industry. Big providers got even larger through creative mergers and acquisitions. Admissions and utilization numbers held strong. New telehealth opportunities started to emerge. And, in general, revenues remained high. The upcoming year brings much uncertainty, however, with the main culprit being the Patient-Driven Groupings […]
In December, the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) launched a new program aimed at bringing hospital-level care into patients’ homes. The program allows patients to be discharged sooner and avoid costly emergency department visits. Dubbed “Huntsman at Home,” this initiative is the latest instance of health care’s shift to the home and the […]
In years to come, cross-continuum collaboration and the formation of integrated care delivery models that keep people away from hospitals will be the main catalysts for lowering U.S. health care spending. For senior housing, assisted living and independent living providers, in particular, that makes establishing relationships with home- and community-based partners all the more important. […]
Telemonitoring has long been touted as a way to reduce hospitalizations. But when paired with home health care for heart failure patients, that may not always be the case. Still, there are reasons — from both a cost and outcomes perspective — for home health providers to consider implementing telemonitoring for this patient group. That’s […]
AccentCare Inc. announced Thursday it had acquired Steward Home Care and Hospice, kicking off 2019 by continuing a hot M&A pace set over the past couple years. The Steward acquisition — effective Dec. 31, 2018 — catapults Dallas-based AccentCare into the new states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, expanding the company’s reach to 16 states […]