As COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue across the country, just over half of front-line health care workers have received at least the first dose. Of these workers, home health professionals are the least vaccinated. That’s according to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and The Washington Post. Conducted in early March, the survey […]
Kaiser Family Foundation
The coronavirus is expected to drive demand for home health care in the long term. But in the short term, it has yielded industry-wide declines in employment and spending. That’s according to a new data analysis released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) in partnership with the Peterson Center on Healthcare. Specifically, KFF and […]
Non-medical home care providers hoping to break into the Medicare Advantage (MA) space have been attentively watching for signs of how plans will respond to the coronavirus. While some believe the COVID-19 virus will throw a wrench into MA home care opportunities, others believe the current public health emergency will only accelerate plans pushing into […]
Two Pittsburgh residents — and home health employees — have pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of conspiracy to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program and health care fraud. United States Attorney Scott Brady announced the guilty pleas last week. Between 2011 and 2017, both Terra Dean and Larita Walls admitted they played […]
Despite a rise in the number of Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollees over the past several years, the percentage of MA plans offering supplemental benefits, including home care services, is on its way down. That’s according to a recent study conducted by Duke University’s Margolis Center for Policy Health. Overall, there were 22 million Medicare beneficiaries […]
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is seeing Medicare Advantage (MA) growth like never before, a point that contributed to its strong second quarter performance. The home-focused health insurance giant only expects membership to continue to boom in the months to come, executives predicted on a Q2 earnings call Wednesday. In Q2, Humana’s group MA membership was […]
The Medicare Advantage revolution continues to grow — and starting in 2020, home care providers will reap the rewards. Through a series of law changes over the past decade, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, Medicare’s move away from fee-for-service models and toward value-based […]
Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment is expected to skyrocket in coming years, with more than one-third of Medicare beneficiaries currently signed up. But the pace of the great MA migration may be slower than originally anticipated — and vastly different across state lines. For home care providers, this means there could be fewer older adults with […]
Individuals who jump ship from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage (MA) typically spend less on health care in the year prior to their switch, a new issues brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests. This may mean those enrolled in MA plans are healthier than their Medicare peers — and less in need of the […]
More long-term care spending is going toward home- and community-based services (HCBS), according to a recent survey of all 50 states and the District of Columbia by Kaiser Family Foundation. Through the three main Medicaid HCBS programs in 2014—mandatory state plan home health services, personal care services, and Section 1915 (c) waivers—nearly 3.2 million people […]