The Alliance has released a Home Health Chartbook, providing a broad overview of home health patients, the home health workforce, organizational trends, and the economic contribution of home health agencies. The Chartbook also provides data on 30-day rehospitalization rates.
The research, compiled and charted by Avalere Health LLC, summarizes and analyzes statistics on home health from a range of government sources, including the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Medicare Cost Reports, Home Health Compare, Medicare fee-for-service claims, and other data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Key take-aways about home health that are captured in the Chartbook include the following:
Medicare Home Health Patients
- Medicare home health patients tend to be older than patients in the general Medicare population. Nearly 60% of home health users are patients 75 years of age or older, whereas about 40% of the overall Medicare population are 75 or older.
- More Medicare home health patients have 3 or more chronic conditions as compared to patients in the general Medicare population. 86.0% of home health users have 3 or more chronic conditions, whereas 66.2% of the overall Medicare population has 3 or more chronic conditions.
- Medicare home health patients tend to have lower incomes compared to the general Medicare population. 64.7% of home health patients have annual incomes below $25,000, whereas 50.4% of the general Medicare population has incomes below $25,000.
Home Health as a Job Creator
- Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests that home health will continue to contribute strongly to the U.S. economy as a job creator.
- In 2010, home health was directly responsible for creating 1,986,905 jobs, leading to a total of 2,860,808 jobs created in the U.S. labor force.
- Between 2010 and 2020, BLS predicts that home health will create more than 81,000 jobs for Registered Nurses, more than 50,000 jobs for Licensed Practical/Vocational Nurses, and 13,000 jobs for Social Workers.
To view the Chartbook, please visit: http://ahhqi.org/images/pdf/home-health-chartbook.pdf.