The 4 Forces Shaping Home Health Care in 2022

Home Health Care News | By Robert Holly
 
Home health operators each year have to adapt on a number of different fronts, from relatively minor coding updates to major payment adjustments. But in addition to the more run-of-the-mill items, providers occasionally have to navigate macro-level forces that literally change the industry itself.
 
At least four such forces will redefine home health care in 2022, I believe.
 
Based on post-acute care dealmaking activity in the second half of 2021, it seems likely that next year will usher in the age of consolidation that everyone anticipated leading up to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down. The consolidators won’t just be the usual suspects, however.
 
“I used to get four or five calls a month,” Stoneridge Partners President Rich Tinsley said at FUTURE. “Now, I get two to three a day, and it’s hard to keep up with them.”
 
Along with consolidation, the ongoing shift to value-based care will take center stage in the form of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model and Medicare Advantage (MA). Other, more innovative changes within fee-for-service Medicare, such as Choose Home, also have the potential to redefine the traditional home health model.
 
“I really haven’t yet met with a single congressional staffer or member of Congress since we’ve started where there’s been a response other than, ‘We like this idea conceptually. Now tell us more,’” Joanne Cunningham, executive director of the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare (PQHH) told me in November in regard to Choose Home.
 
While consolidation, value-based care and care innovation present exciting opportunities for home health operators, labor forces and the public health emergency will continue to make their mark as well...

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