Home Health Agencies
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) principal quality improvement priority for the home health setting is to reduce avoidable acute care hospitalizations. Nine other publicly reported quality measures, such as patients' ability to manage oral medications and dyspnea, are also targeted for improvement. To support this work, KFMC works directly with home health agencies (HHAs) and other providers to improve care for Medicare consumers. KFMC educates and supports home health agencies in adopting more effective, person-centered processes, designing efficient systems, and implementing an organizational culture of quality. These strategies are designed to accelerate the rate of quality improvement and result in improved patient outcomes for Medicare consumers who receive home healthcare services.
Public Health Importance
HHAs serve a vital role in the country's healthcare system by enabling persons who cannot leave home to receive services within their own homes, thereby avoiding long-term institutional care. There are approximately 7,000 Medicare-certified home care agencies, and in 2002, Medicare covered home health services for 2.5 million beneficiaries at a cost of $9.6 billion.1
Medicare's home health benefit includes skilled nursing and aide services, physical and occupational therapy, speech pathology services, medical social services, and the provision of certain medical supplies and equipment. To qualify for services, beneficiaries must be confined to their homes, have a plan of care signed by a physician, and need only intermittent (i.e., not continuous) care. The very nature of home health services, a multitude of healthcare providers working semi-autonomously in patients' homes, presents quality challenges that are different from those in institutional settings.
References:
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Data Compendium. Available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/researchers/pubs/datacompendium/current/
. Accessed on June 28, 2005.