DOES HOME HEALTH CARE HAVE A FUTURE?
by
Ralph Santos, CEO, MBA, OTR/L
They may forget your name, but they will never
forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Does
home health care delivery either in the form of a traditional home care agency
or a hospice agency have a future?
According to Kimberly Leonard
in an article in U.S. News and World Report entitled, Is Home Health a Solution
to Rising Health Costs?, the answer is a resounding yes!
As a skilled home health care provider for
the past twenty years, I have seen the tides ebb and flow in various directions
with reimbursement being the common denominator when discussing the changes in
home health care. The fact has always
been obvious: Patients want to be home
to begin their recovery from an illness, an injury, a surgery or any other life
changing event. In this time frame,
timing, comfort and their [the patient's] overall quality of life are essential
to the rehabilitation process. How many
times have I heard patients tell me that they love being home with their
family, eating their home cooked foods, spending time with their pets, their
familiar surroundings. Now, before
people start critiquing this blog, please understand that there are certain
conditions that do warrant the patient to be placed in an acute care facility
or a sub-acute care facility or in an extended care facility such as a
convalescent home. I do not want to in
anyway infer that we should take our ill patients and put them all in their
homes. My point is that if the patient
is stable and able to be in his/her own home with the proper family/caregiver support
systems in place and the proper means to address shelter, safety, comfort,
healthy meals, and a solid medical support system such as a home health agency
that we should allow them [our patients] to that quality of life that is
attained by being in their homes.
Next, in the article written by Kimberly
Leonard, it states many interesting facts, of which two are staggering: (1) "since 2011 a wave of 77 million
baby boomers only started to become eligible for Medicare" and (2) "the
population of people 80 and over nearly triples between 2010 and 2050." What do these number mean to us in the home
health care industry? The answer is
simple. We have an insurmountable task ahead of us in
trying to keep up a high quality of care in alignment with a huge demand curve
along with a huge decrease in reimbursement.
In my case, I can attest that with the
reimbursement levels coming down and the cost of living rising, my experience
tells me that many healthcare providers may think twice about entering the home
health care setting. Variables such as
the cost of: rent, fuel, food, water
(especially in California) commingled with our basic yearly rate of inflation
and we have health care professionals scrambling to see where they will make
enough money to pay for their basic staples.
In my opinion, we are heading into a
tsunami of patients needing home health care services with our current health
care infrastructure in a position of uncertainty and instability. Our uncertainty stems from our lack of understanding
that patients want to be in their homes (when applicable) and that the cost of
home health when compared to an acute hospital stay or when compared to a
skilled nursing facility stay are notably different. According to the article written by Kimberly
Leonard, "a person who undergoes surgery and is transitioned to
home care for a month can expect a bill for about $1,200 - as opposed to a
$12,000 bill for a skilled nursing facility."
In closing, we as healthcare providers
need to be vigilant, patient centered, and consistent advocates on behalf of
our patients and their families. We need
to educate our patients when it would be beneficial to them being placed in a
facility for medical care versus when going home and receiving home health
would be warranted. We need to
understand that the home environment is the most conducive to a psychosocial
well being and a greater quality of life!
Will there be a future for home health
care? I believe a better phrase will be
to ask: What will be the future of our growing
older adult homebound population without home health care?
References: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/09/30/is-home-health-a-solution-to-rising-health-costs
Ralph Santos, CEO, MBA,
OTR/L,is the owner of the Center for Physical Therapy Services, Inc. located at
1650 E. Walnut Street, #B, Pasadena, CA 91106. Their office number is: (626)
683-9959. The Center for Physical Therapy Services, Inc., specializes in the
training and guidance of PT, OT, ST and MSWs in the home health care setting.
The company’s website is: www.Center4PT.com. The Center for Physical Therapy
Services, Inc., also provides home health agencies and hospices with in-office
training, lectures to senior centers, training to caregivers, and is able to
help clients with choosing a home health care or hospice agency. Email:
Ralph@Center4PT.com
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