Advanced Care at Home Coalition

Why is a five-year extension of the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) waiver program needed? The hospital at home program continues to grow in popularity. Right now, 378 hospitals across 140 systems in 39 states are currently approved for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' waiver, currently set to expire at the end of the year. A five-year extension is critical. It will: • Have no meaningful budgetary scoring impact. • Create opportunities for more patients to have access to this model of care, including allowing for more hospitals serving rural populations to participate. • Provide the stability and predictability necessary for healthcare professionals, systems, and plans to scale nascent programs to sustainable levels. • Enable more robust data collection to demonstrate the quality outcomes (both clinical and patient satisfaction) and costs of acute-level home care for hospitalization-eligible conditions as compared to hospital facility episodes – and establish a permanent pathway for hospital at home. • Provide sufficient time to allow more state Medicaid programs to establish coverage and reimbursement pathways for provider participation in acute care at home, improving equity in access (today only 13 states have provided for coverage of acute or advanced care at home). Read and share our full FAQ resource: https://lnkd.in/guf54TyU

Congrats to Community Health Network in Indiana, the latest hospital system approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver program. The hospitals participating are: —Community Hospital South —Community Hospital North —Community Hospital East —Community Hospital of Anderson and Madison County —Community Howard Regional Health This brings the total entities with the waiver to 378 hospitals across 140 systems in 39 states. Onward and upward! See CMS’s list: https://lnkd.in/gdJUq_3B #HospitalAtHome

🚀 Mass General Brigham Hospital-at-Home Program Expands Beyond the Home! 🏥🏠 Big congrats to Asaf Bitton, David Levine, and our other friends and colleagues at Mass General Brigham on their latest hospital-at-home milestone! MGB has joined forces with the New England Center and Home for Veterans and Ariadne Labs to bring top-notch hospital care directly to veterans at the Safe Haven shelter in Boston. This partnership is the first of its kind, giving homeless veterans 24/7 remote monitoring, daily check-ins from healthcare professionals, and quality care without needing to travel. 🎖️💙 (Link in comments.) The MGB program continues to set the standard for more hospital-at-home models nationwide. An important step for healthcare equity and a key piece of the puzzle in value-based care! 🙌💪 #HospitalAtHome #Veterans #HealthcareInnovation

I’m beyond excited to share the launch of Lee Health’s Hospital at Home program! We have an amazing team providing hospital level care in the comfort of your home! 🙌 🏠

A recent article from Home Health Care News explores how healthcare providers work to ensure that patients’ homes are safe for, and ready to deliver hospital at home services made possible by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver. For hospital at home programs to be successful and sustainable, it’s true that homes must adapt – either modified in real time and/or built new in the future to meet residents’ changing healthcare needs – as “the boundaries between healthcare facilities and homes become less distinct.” To prepare for a patient’s hospital at home transition, providers perform an eligibility assessment, a kind-of “fact-finding mission” to understand a person’s environment and family dynamics. It’s everything from: --Does the home setting have running water and electricity? --Is there a need to declutter the space and remove tripping hazards? --Do grab bars need to be added to the home? --In terms of caregiving, what are family members willing and able to take on, in partnership with visiting clinicians? Stephen C. Dorner, MD, MPH, MSc of Mass General Brigham Healthcare at Home, Michael Maniaci of MAYO CLINIC FLORIDA, and Guadalupe Pantoja of Health First share their experiences within the piece. Health First is a nonprofit community health system in Brevard County, Fla. Its hospitals approved for the waiver include Cape Canaveral Hospital, Holmes Regional Medical Center, Palm Bay Hospital, and Viera Hospital. "'Our community has older homes, and the equipment we need, such as oxygen, requires a safe outlet, but many of these homes might not have that. Therefore, we must also assess these factors before bringing patients home,'" Pantoja said. "'There are hard yes or no questions, and then there are the "tell me about X, Y or Z." I’ve taught my team that the ideal sense of a home in their minds might not be where other people live,'" said Dr. Maniaci. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/gZn7CNbD #healthcare #HospitalAtHome #AHCAH

BY THE NUMBERS: As of Nov. 6, 373 hospitals across 139 systems in 39 states are currently approved for the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) waiver program. We've updated our graph, depicting the steady growth of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' waiver. We support the extension of CMS' AHCAH waiver and federal commitment to increasing access to care in the home. We ask Congress to take urgent action before the end of the year to preserve long-term access to this critical care pathway. Share the PDF: https://lnkd.in/gRWB2eJb Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Medically Home, Advocate Health, Hackensack Meridian Health, Amedisys, Michigan Medicine, Contessa Health, St. Luke's Health System #HospitalAtHome

The #HospitalatHome movement has proliferated during the last decade, reshaping how acute care is delivered. Read The Washington Post's latest: https://lnkd.in/gGzqPWJU

How long does it take to scale up a hospital at home program to a sustainable level? It can take two to three years for a hospital at home program to mature. Enrollment of the first patient is usually preceded by 6+ months of planning, contracting, and recruiting/training the right workforce. This is a significant exercise in change management! It takes another 12-18 months to gain experience and standardize processes before a program is able to admit more than one to two patients per day. Established programs continue to scale up as clinician, patient, and caregiver familiarity with hospital at home increases, and the program grows in capabilities. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as of Nov. 6, 2024, 373 hospitals across 139 systems in 39 states are currently approved for the AHCAH waiver program. As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday and reflect, we're giving thanks for the growth of these programs, and the tenacity of the staff and systems working to make these programs an option for patients in their communities and states. Read more facts about hospital at home programs: https://lnkd.in/guf54TyU #HospitalAtHome #Thanksgiving

In a post-election letter, the ACH Coalition thanked Speaker Mike Johnson and Leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Charles Schumer, and Mitch McConnell for their continued support of the hospital at home waiver, and asked Congress to take urgent action before the end of the year to preserve long-term access to this critical care pathway. Throughout the year, bipartisan legislation to advance a five-year extension of the waiver flexibilities has been introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate and advanced out of the U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means and House Committee on Energy and Commerce on a unanimous basis earlier this year. Recently, a statutorily-mandated Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services report to Congress on the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver initiative affirmed the safety and quality of care being provided under hospital at home. Since Congress last took action to extend the AHCAH waiver in December 2022, nearly 100 additional hospitals have sought and received waivers to participate, demonstrating clear ongoing interest in expanding this critical program. Read the full letter: https://lnkd.in/grQkR4Vb #HospitalAtHome #AHCAH #HealthcareInnovation

Hospitals and health systems are becoming increasingly more innovative in how they make at-home care work for a variety of patients. Check out the list. https://lnkd.in/gXSusBT8