One home-based care veteran believes that the short-term funding waiver reimbursement structure is stymying hospital-at-home\u2019s growth. <\/p>\n
BrightStar Care Founder Shelly Sun Berkowitz called the hospital-at-home model an \u201cabsolute game changer\u201d for patients and the health care system \u2013\u00a0 but has identified reimbursement barriers preventing these programs from accelerating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe frustrating truth is, this incredible vision is constantly hitting a roadblock: long-term funding,\u201d Sun Berkowitz wrote in a LinkedIn <\/a>article on Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing amazing clinical outcomes, happier patients, and real cost savings from hospital-at-home programs. The data is clear. Yet, our federal policies continue to rely on short-term waivers, creating a cliff-edge every few months. In fact, the current CMS waiver program for Hospital at Home is set to expire this September. This isn\u2019t a distant threat; it\u2019s a rapidly approaching deadline.\u201d <\/p>\n Chicagoland-based BrightStar Care offers personal home care, as well as supplemental staffing and home health care. It has over 400 franchise locations across the U.S.<\/p>\n The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) first introduced the Acute Hospital Care At Home program<\/a> in 2020. The waiver program was meant to increase hospital capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed providers to gain access to reimbursement for delivering hospital-level care in the home. Initially set to expire at the end of 2024, the program was extended through March 2025 and then through Sept. 30, 2025. <\/p>\n Sun Berkowitz explained that it is difficult for home-based care leaders to throw their weight behind the hospital-at-home model when there is so much uncertainty. <\/p>\n \u201cFrom my own experience, I know the level of commitment and investment it takes to build these programs,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhen we piloted an acute care at home initiative, we made significant, brave investments in training and specialized equipment, believing deeply in its potential. But it\u2019s nearly impossible to commit those kinds of resources \u2013 or for states to expand crucial Medicaid coverage \u2013 when you don\u2019t know what the policy landscape will look like next year, let alone five years from now.\u201d <\/p>\n Sun Berkowitz\u2019s company BrightStar Care has collaborated with Medically Home<\/a>, now known as DispatchHealth<\/a>, to provide primary in-home clinician and transport services. <\/p>\n Ultimately, Sun Berkowitz urges policymakers to take action and health care stakeholders to increase their advocacy efforts. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have bipartisan support for this model, and the evidence is mounting,\u201d Sun Berkowitz wrote. \u201cWhat we need now is for our policymakers to act decisively. If you believe, like I do, that patients deserve the best care in the best place, it\u2019s time for us to speak up. Let\u2019s advocate for the long-term policy certainty that hospital-at-home desperately needs, not just to survive, but thrive and truly transform U.S. health care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One home-based care veteran believes that the short-term funding waiver reimbursement structure is stymying hospital-at-home\u2019s growth. BrightStar Care…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2653,210,1141,1142,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-1910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-brightstar-care","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114720532465507113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}