SNF-to-Home Diversion Opportunities Skyrocket for Home Health Providers

The nursing home industry has taken the brunt of the nation’s coronavirus blow, with more than 40% of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths involving skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Those staggering statistics have prompted fewer seniors to receive care in the setting, both for voluntary reasons and because many SNFs stopped accepting new patients and started discharging […]

Predicting COVID-19’s Long-Term Impact on the Home Health Care Market

The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and its unintended ripple effects were supposed to be the dominant story this year for the nation’s 12,000 or so Medicare-certified home health care providers. But the coronavirus has rewritten the script for 2020, throwing most of the industry’s previous projections out the window. While PDGM — implemented on Jan. […]

Therapy Staff Layoffs Continue at Staggering Pace

Immediately following the Oct. 1 rollout of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), news broke about widespread therapy staff layoffs throughout the skilled nursing industry. The layoffs have continued — at a staggering pace — in the months since. While PDPM is inherently different than the home health industry’s upcoming Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the reimbursement […]

PDPM Speed Bumps Hint at Unexpected PDGM Challenges to Come

With less than two months left on the clock before home health agencies take their shot at the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), questions regarding industry preparedness and education continue to swirl. Some, however, say those questions are better aimed at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Similar to home health providers, CMS regulators […]

PDPM Aftermath Offers Glimpse of Home Health Therapy Changes to Come

Home health operators wondering how therapy utilization will change following the Jan. 1 implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) need only look to their post-acute care brethren for answers. The beginning of October marked the official start of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), another major payment overhaul from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid […]

MedPAC: Home Health Continues to Shift Away from Post-Hospital Care

Home health providers continue to see a rise in patients coming from the community instead of hospitals and other institutional settings, recently released Medicare data shows. From 2001 to 2017, the number of home health episodes not preceded by a hospitalization or other post-acute care (PAC) stay increased by nearly 124%, according to updated figures […]

SNF Operators Bash Health Care’s Shift into the Home

The home health industry can sometimes feel like an echo chamber when it comes to the home being the safest and least expensive site of care. Outside the industry, however, that belief is often open for debate — and even downright denied. The most recent rejection of the U.S. health care system’s shift into the […]

SNF Prediction Tool Could Keep Home Health Diversions High

A risk tool that makes it possible to accurately predict which hospital patients will end up being discharged to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) could lead to more care being shifted into the home. That’s according to a recent study published in the June issue of JAMDA. Conducted by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard […]

8% of Senior Living Providers See In-Home Care as a Growth Opportunity

Despite consumer preferences for home-based care, relatively few senior living organizations see it as a potential growth opportunity. Meanwhile, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) say they’re only losing a fraction of their referrals to home health providers. That’s according to a recent report from Enquire Solutions, a Greenwood Village, Colorado-based customer relationship management (CRM) and contact […]

Genesis CEO George Hager: SNF-to-Home Diversion Wave Is Over

Throughout the past decade, health care policymakers have attempted to curb spending by shifting care into the home and away from hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and other higher-acuity settings. Coupled with demographic tailwinds tied to a baby boomer generation that is rapidly aging, those efforts have contributed to the growing U.S. home health care […]