Seth Joseph, the managing director of Summit Health, a boutique strategy consultancy, wrote in Forbes this week that home health is dealing with several challenges as the field grows.
Among these, Joseph states, are:
- reimbursement complexities
- staffing challenges
- bad actors
Some of these struggles are due to inadequate resources, he wrote. For example, Medicare is paying billions in improper payments, annually, for home health services and supplies, he said. But the majority of these improper payments, explained Joseph, were because of insufficient documentation due to insufficient technology to help ensure better data management.
The article also discussed the importance of technology in the form of easy-to-use resources that connect staff with expert resources and communication tools and data exchange capabilities to relay information back and forth from home health agencies to workers and clinicians.
It’s important to realize, the article stated, that consumers want care at home and more healthcare organizations are buying into it. Also, the savings is real, Joseph said. “Home healthcare as a post-acute option has been associated with savings of $4,514 per care,” he wrote.
