Care at Home News Review
Read on for the Alliance’s regular round-up of important home care, home health, hospice, and palliative care stories from around the country.
National Alliance for Care at Home Taps Experienced Post-Acute Veteran As New COO
The National Alliance for Care at Home’s (the Alliance) leadership team is rounding into form. Sherl Brand – who has significant leadership experience in provider, association and third-party roles – is set to become the next COO.
Brand will begin her new position in the middle of January. She will become the first COO of the organization, which came as a result of a merger between the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) earlier this year.
New C-Suite Executives Tapped to Lead Hospices in 2025
National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) recently announced Sherl Brand as its new COO, who will ascend into the role in January.
Brand was previously senior vice president of hospice and palliative care at New York-based VNS Health, holding a similar role at CareCentrix prior to that. A registered nurse, she has also served as chief external affairs officer and vice president of business development at the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group, Inc. She was also on the board of directors at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
MedPAC advises cutting home health payments by 7 percent, freezing hospice payments in ’26
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) on Friday issued draft recommendations that entail cutting payments to home health agencies by 7% and freezing hospice payments in 2026. The body, which advises Congress on Medicare payment issues, issued the same recommendations last year.
Providers, once again, were not pleased.
“The recent recommendations by MedPAC regarding Medicare home health and hospice policy are misguided and deeply troubling,” Steve Landers, MD, CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home, said in a statement to McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “Medicare hospice spending has not kept up with labor inflation in the past five years and the typical length of stay and proportion of beneficiaries accessing hospice has stagnated. With respect to home health, the recommendation for drastic cuts is based on a flawed analysis of agency margins that fails to account for all payers and the true financial health of the home health system.”
MedPAC Recommends ‘Misguided and Deeply Troubling’ Home Health Payment Cut
For the second consecutive year, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has issued a draft recommendation advising Congress to reduce Medicare payments to home health agencies by 7% beginning in 2026.
During its December meeting, MedPAC discussed the adequacy of Medicare payments across various provider settings and reviewed its draft recommendations to Congress regarding payment updates for 2026.
MedPAC staff evaluated several factors to assess payment adequacy, including beneficiaries’ access to care, quality of care, access to capital, and the relationship between Medicare payments and costs. Most notably, the commission recommended payment updates for hospitals and physicians that exceed the requirements set by current law.
“The recent recommendations by MedPAC regarding Medicare home health and hospice policy are misguided and deeply troubling,” National Alliance for Care at Home CEO Dr. Steve Landers said in a statement to Home Health Care News. “With respect to home health, the recommendation for drastic cuts is based on a flawed analysis of agency margins that fails to account for all payers and the true financial health of the home health system.”
‘Detrimental, Unnecessary Chaos’ Looms as Hospice Telehealth Waivers Expire
Some of the temporary telehealth flexibilities implemented during the pandemic will soon expire while others have been recently extended. These evolving regulations have hospices concerned that a lack of virtual access to their services could have significant impacts on quality and health disparities.
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The telemedicine extension reflects a growing recognition of the critical role telehealth plays in ensuring timely access to care, particularly in the hospice setting, said Madison Summers, public affairs professional at the National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance).
“While we deeply appreciate the extension of DEA flexibilities, we strongly advocate for policymakers to make both the DEA and [face-to-face (F2F)] provisions permanent — or, at the very least, to ensure hospice providers have specific exceptions moving forward,” Summer told Hospice News in an email. “Given the proximity to expiration, failing to extend these policies would be irresponsible and could create unnecessary chaos for patients and providers alike.”
The ‘Dream’ Scenario Of Combining Home Health, Home Care To Unlock Value-Based Care
One of the publicity issues home-based care faces is that most people don’t even understand the difference between home health care and home care, much to the chagrin of industry veterans in both sectors. But in the future, those same leaders are bullish on the merging of those two types of care.
Home care and home health care are separate services, yes. But together, could they unlock a doorway to the world of value-based care? Lots of organizations already provide both services, and referrals between those segments occur.
Increasingly, though, providers believe that home care and home health will end up supplementing each other. Each care type can augment the other, they believe. Particularly for those that are chronically ill.
Study covers link between socioeconomic status of patients, quality of their home health providers
Patients who live in neighborhoods of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to use poorer-quality home healthcare providers and less likely to remain living in their communities, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
Medicare beneficiaries who lived in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods (as classified by the Area Deprivation Index) had a roughly 15% likelihood to use low-quality home health agencies, the study found. In contrast, beneficiaries who lived in more privileged communities were 11% likely to use low-quality home health agencies.
Home-based palliative care has grown in popularity, but expertise lags, report finds
Medicare Advantage plans increasingly have offered home-based palliative care as a supplemental benefit in recent years, according to the first-ever palliative care scorecard released by the Center to Advance Palliative Care. However, there remains a shortage of qualified clinicians who can deliver the specialty, the report said.
In 2024, at least 205 Medicare Advantage plans offer home-based palliative care to their enrollees, CAPC said. Beneficiaries in more than 80% of US counties reported having access to home-based palliative care options. These statistics are substantially higher than previous years, according to CAPC.
Home-Based Care Providers Scramble To Find The ‘Right’ Health Plan, Health System Partners
Home-based care providers hungry for value-based care arrangements have recently been disillusioned by the process of trying to find those arrangements. While they’ve been told value-based care is the way to go, they often end up finding that health systems and payers aren’t as willing to meet them in the middle.
Enhabit Inc. (NYSE: EHAB) CEO Barb Jacobsmeyer has mentioned this on multiple occasions. Medicare Advantage (MA) payers, when pressed on the idea of a value-based arrangement, generally aren’t willing or able to make agreements with home health providers.
The Most Significant Palliative Care Research Trends in 2024
Palliative care has been at the forefront of several research efforts in 2024, with findings increasingly pointing to the value proposition of these services when it comes to cost savings and quality.
Data has become a crucial component of understanding both unmet patient needs and where to fuel resources that address them, Empath Health President and CEO Jonathan Fleece said during the Hospice News Palliative Care Executive webinar.
Why 2025 Will Be a Great Year to Sell Your Home Health Agency
The stars are aligning for owners of home health agencies. After experiencing years of disruptions, uncertainty and more challenges than we want to list, 2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for home health operators—especially for owners that plan to sell their companies this coming year.
Here are just seven reasons why we are optimistic about 2025:
Home care attorney: Deregulation under Trump may ignite deals, but deportation plans remain cause for concern
President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for his second term in office are a mixed bag for home care providers. While his focus on deregulation may help kickstart mergers and acquisitions activity, other plans related to immigration could severely constrain the caregiving workforce, according to Angelo Spinola, a shareholder with the Polsinelli law firm.
“We’ve seen a lot of FTC [Federal Trade Commission] and government scrutiny lately from an antitrust and private equity perspective, and a lot of investigation and hold-up of some of the larger deals,” Spinola said Thursday during a Home Care Industry Update webinar. “I think we’ll see a lessened focus from the FTC and federal regulators getting involved in these deals over time, but this isn’t going to happen overnight.”
Increase in state Medicaid HCBS outlays did not raise home care worker wages, study finds
While state spending on Medicaid home- and community-based services (HCBS) increased from 2008 to 2019, home care workers’ wages remained stagnant, according to a recent study.
For the study, University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (Penn LDI) fellows used 2008 to 2019 data on Medicaid spending by 36 states and American Community Survey data on employment and income. They found that average state spending on HCBS doubled from $773 million to $1.5 billion. But workers’ wages still hovered at $11 to $12 an hour. Also, average state workforce size and hours increased, but only slightly.
Hospice Educators ‘Planting Seeds’ Among High School Students
The Harley School is seeking to inspire a new generation of hospice professionals to enter the field with educational programs that highlight the meaningful work involved in end-of-life care delivery.
Based in Rochester, New York, the college preparatory school’s curriculum includes a broad range of topics such as visual and performing arts, training in nursery and childhood education, civic engagement and a program focused on hospice education.
Teaching students about hospice care allows them to gain a deeper understanding of their potential to help others in both their professional and personal journeys, said Sybil Prince, a hospice, service learning, and mindfulness educator at The Harley School’s Center for Mindfulness & Empathy Education. Prince is also a licensed clinical social worker and an adjunct professor at the State University of New York Brockport.
The Table-Stakes Technology Entering Home-Based Care In 2025 And Beyond
The need for home-based care is drastically increasing. All the while, providers are dealing with an unabated staffing problem. That’s why, in order to succeed in the future, many provider leaders believe that the gap needs to be bridged by the right technology solutions.
“We know that most adults want to age in place at home, which is the right place as it’s proven to be better for overall health and well-being and more cost-effective than an institutionalized setting,” Help at Home President Tim O’Rourke told Home Health Care News. “Meeting the care needs of Medicaid/dual-eligibles now and beyond 2025 will provide opportunities for home care and the health care industry to enhance care services supported by emerging technology and care innovations.”
DOL proposes phasing out rule allowing employers to pay disabled workers subminimum wages
The Department of Labor would like to phase out certificates that allow employers to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.
Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act authorizes employers to use certificates to pay subminimum wages for employees whose “earning or productive capacity is impaired by a physical or mental disability, including those relating to age or injury,” according to the DOL. On Tuesday, the department issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that, if finalized, would phase out these certificates over a three-year period.
ECRI: AI, unmet home-based technology top health hazards list for 2025
Artificial intelligence and unmet technological support needs for home care patients are the top health-related hazards for 2025, according to ECRI, a product evaluation and safety organization.
ECRI ranks the emerging tools or practices that present a danger to patients and staff in its annual Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report. The No. 1 item on this year’s list was AI, which can pose numerous health risks if not implemented carefully, ECRI said.
“The promise of artificial intelligence’s capabilities must not distract us from its risks or its ability to harm patients and providers,” Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer of ECRI, said Wednesday in a statement. “Balancing innovation in AI with privacy and safety will be one of the most difficult, and most defining, endeavors of modern medicine.”
Home care technology firms team up to fight caregiver shortages
Everybody loves a dynamic duo. Batman and Robin. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Iced tea and lemonade. In the world of home care, tech firms Rosemark and CareCrown have partnered to find ways to combat caregiver shortages and increase retention.
Rosemark is a software company that provides operations solutions for home care organizations while CareCrown is an organization focused on helping home care agencies attract and retain caregivers. Through this collaboration, Rosemark will incorporate CareCrown programs on its software. Rosemark senior project manager and product owner Robin Tuck says the partnership makes sense as companies align in both their mission and methods.
