The Biden administration is releasing $1.4 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan for Older Americans Act programs. Distributed by the Administration for Community Living, a chunk of the funds will go toward home- and community-based services. President Joe Biden originally signed the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package, into law on March […]
Category: Home Health Care
Once its 100% acquisition of Kindred at Home is finalized, Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) believes it will become one of the premier home health care providers in the entire country. It certainly has the resources to be just that. That’s partly because the payer-provider hybrid is also directly contracting with traditional Medicare through the Global […]
Typically, when executives talk about their companies “having to weather the storm,” they’re speaking figuratively. That wasn’t the case for Addus HomeCare Corporation (Nasdaq: ADUS) on Tuesday. Addus CEO and Chairman Dirk Allison talked about the negative impact that the February winter storms had on the home-based care provider’s business during the company’s Q1 2021 […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) payment model. That’s welcome news for home health operators, as CJR has been a key program for participating agencies since its implementation. Introduced in 2016, CJR essentially allows CMS to hand out bonuses or inflict payment penalties […]
Patients recovering at a skilled nursing facility (SNF) can often be discharged home much sooner than they typically are without resulting in a negative health outcome, new research suggests. And if that were to happen more frequently, it could potentially save the U.S. health care system millions of dollars in post-acute care spending while setting […]
The frequency of low-utilization payment adjustments (LUPAs) increased for many home health providers in the first year of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), which coincided with the COVID-19 crisis. In part, that’s because there are far more LUPA variables to keep track of under the new payment model. At times, increases were also linked to […]
Changes to the requirements for Medicare provider enrollment could have major consequences for home health providers down the line. Under provider enrollment requirements, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has the authority to rescind providers’ Medicare enrollment if they are associated with “bad actors” and are at risk for fraud due to […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) hasn’t been shy about the company’s plans to gain an even larger share of business from other post-acute care operators. With that in mind, the company has been focused on setting up shop in the SNF-at-home space, pairing skilled home health care with non-medical personal care services. Those efforts have now […]
Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) announced in December that it was “exploring strategic alternatives” for its home health and hospice segment. Four months later, April Anthony, the CEO and original founder of the segment, revealed she was stepping down this summer. With the home health business well on its way to recovering from the COVID-19 […]
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) believes it can deliver home health services better than traditional providers do today. More than any other reason, that’s fundamentally why it’s accelerating its in-home care strategy by acquiring 100% of home health giant Kindred at Home for a “bargain” purchase price of $5.7 billion — the company’s largest acquisition ever. […]