A new study has revealed that home health care dramatically reduces hospital re-admittance rates and saves millions of dollars.
The report released by the Home Care and Hospice Association of New Jersey looked at nearly 200,000 Medicare beneficiaries and found that keeping patients at home saved $7 million in 2014.
From New Jersey 101.5:
Association president and CEO Chrissy Buteas said the study found that patients who took advantage of home health care had at least a 30 percent less chance of being readmitted to the hospital.
“That number further increases in patients with multiple chronic conditions,” said Buteas.
The study was conducted by the Quality Insights Quality Innovation Network, contracted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve quality of health care for Medicare beneficiaries in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Louisiana, and focused on Medicare Fee-for-Service claims from 2014.
The study comes in the wake of the state’s recent recognition last summer of having the highest percentage of hospitals – 97 percent of the state’s 64 facilities – penalized by the CMS for failing to curb high re-admittance rates of Medicare Fee-for-Service patients within 30 days of their initial discharge.
The 30-day hospital readmission rate among beneficiaries receiving home health care services was 17.2 percent, as opposed to 24.5 percent among those who received a home health care referral, but refused the service. For patients living with multiple (four or more) chronic illnesses, the disparity was even greater – 23.7 percent of home health care recipients requiring a readmission as opposed to 31.8 percent of those who refused home health care.
Ann Painter, board chairwoman of the Home Care and Hospice Association of New Jersey, says she hopes to present the data to New Jersey legislators to demonstrate the value of home health care services, New Jersey 101.5 reports.
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