Post Acute Care

 Post Acute Care

Home health care is a system of care provided by skilled practitioners to patients in their homes under a physician’s direction. The services offered in Home health care include nursing care, occupational, physical, and speech-language therapy, and medical social services. Home health care is offered to patients who live at home but cannot travel to obtain treatment (Saenger et al., 2022). The criterion is homebound persons with rehabilitation and nursing needs. Home health care services aim to help individuals improve function and live with greater independence and promote a patient’s optimal level of well-being. Besides, it seeks to help the patient remain at home and avoid hospitalization or hospital admission to a long-term care institution.

Most home care agencies charge per hour, although some offer discounted rates for monthly contracts. The median cost of home care in the U.S. was $26 an hour in 2021. However, in-home care costs vary depending on the licensing requirements, geographic location, and level of care required. The monthly median cost of in-home, full-time care for seniors is $4,957, based on 44 hours of care a week, which is the industry standard (Saenger et al., 2022). From 2004 to 2021, the cost of in-home care services has seen a five-year annual compound growth rate of 5.39%. This includes a rise of 10.6% between 2020 and 2021 due to a surge in demand for Home health care services.

Home health care represents an opportunity to minimize preventable adverse events and costs following hospital discharge. Discharge with home health care is associated with a significant decrease in healthcare utilization and reduced hazard of readmission and death. However, Werner et al. (2019) found that among Medicare beneficiaries eligible for post-acute care at home or in a skilled nursing facility, discharge to home with home health care was linked to higher readmission rates.

References

Saenger, P. M., Ornstein, K. A., Garrido, M. M., Lubetsky, S., Bollens-Lund, E., DeCherrie, L. V., Leff, B., Siu, A. L., & Federman, A. D. (2022). Cost of home hospitalization versus inpatient hospitalization inclusive of a 30-day post-acute period. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 70(5), 1374–1383. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17706