BASIC STATISTICS ABOUT HOME CARE Updated 2008 Prepared by: The National Association for Home Care & Hospice 228 Seventh Street, SE • Washington, DC 20003 202.547.7424 • http://www.nahc.org • E-mail:
[email protected] Home care is a diverse and dynamic service Services were then extended to certain industry that began in US in the 1880’s. disabled Americans in 1973. Between 1967 Approximately 7.6 million individuals currently and 1985, Medicare-certified agencies grew receive care from 83,000 providers because of more than three-fold (1,753 to 5,983); however, acute illness, long-term health conditions, in the mid-1980s, Medicare-certified home permanent disability, or terminal illness.1 In health care agencies reached a plateau 2007, annual expenditures for home health (approximately 5,900) due to Medicare care were projected to be $57.6 billion.2 administrative burden and unreliable payments. This led to a 1987 lawsuit brought against the HOME CARE PROVIDERS then-Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) by US Representatives Harley “Home care organizations” include home health Staggers (D-WV) and Claude Pepper (D-FL), care agencies, home care aide organization, consumer groups, and the National Association and hospices. Some of these organizations are for Home Care (NAHC). The successful lawsuit Medicare certified, which allows providers to gave NAHC the opportunity to participate in bill Medicare for reimbursement. Agencies that rewriting Medicare coverage policies, which are not Medicare certified cannot be significantly increased Medicare’s annual home reimbursed through Medicare. care outlays, and the number of agencies rose to over 10,000. Prior to clarifications in Medicare-certified Agencies coverage, public health agencies dominated the ranks of certified entities.