BrightStar Care has built a reputation as one of the home care industry’s innovators.
Past examples of the home care franchise company’s pioneering spirit include its investment in small-home senior living residences and its educational partnership with Chamberlain University. On Tuesday, the Gurnee, Illinois-based BrightStar announced its latest innovation effort, which will include an expansion of its clinical capabilities.
To broaden its services and become a bigger part of the in-home higher-acuity care ecosystem, BrightStar – in collaboration with Medically Home – will now provide primary in-home clinician and transport services. The provider will first bring the additional services to two new markets in California and New Jersey, after successfully deploying them in Arizona last year.
Andy Ray, CEO of BrightStar Care, described Tuesday’s announcement and the Medically Home partnership as a “pivotal step” for the home care giant. Ray took over as BrightStar’s CEO earlier in 2024, with founding CEO Shelly Sun transitioning to a chairwoman role.
“We believe the future of health care is in the home,” Ray said in a press release. “Hospital-at-home care has been shown to provide better patient outcomes with reduced hospital readmissions, reduced falls and reduced acquired infections, and we are pleased to play a key role in the transformation of care.”
Founded in 2002, BrightStar has franchised locations across the U.S., employing more than 15,000 caregivers and 5,700 registered nurses (RNs). In addition to its franchise locations, the company also maintains several corporate-owned offices.
Medically Home, meanwhile, is one of the most well-known “hospital-at-home companies” in the nation. It has raised roughly $275 million since launching, with the Mayo clinic and Kaiser Permanente among its major investors.
“Medically Home is committed to decentralizing care outside of facilities, and back to where people, patients and their families feel best — which is in their homes,” Dr. Pippa Shulman, chief medical officer at Medically Home, previously told Home Health Care News.
Where BrightStar Care is working with Medically Home, patients and their care teams will be linked to physicians and nurses, who will, together, monitor their condition and coordinate necessary services.
“In these markets, patients admitted to home hospital are transported from the bricks and mortar facility to their homes by BrightStar Care [RNs], where their home hospital admission is completed,” the press release explains. “Throughout the hospitalization, RNs provide primary in-home clinical support, which includes multiple in-person visits each day. RNs also provide infusions and other clinical care as well as discharge visits.”
HHCN connected with Ray and Sun to discuss BrightStar’s leadership transition earlier this month.
During that conversation, the two executives teased that further higher-acuity care plans were already underway.
“Health care is changing,” Ray told HHCN. “We’re doing a lot of work with hospital-at-home programs right now. That has been fundamental. We actually now have opportunities for owners to get into completely different lines of business.”
Contextually, hospital-at-home programs and initiatives have been around for decades. However, the concept has gained momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic, partly because of the special waiver – a new reimbursement pathway – that the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services created.
That waiver is set to eventually expire, unless home-based care advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C. – such as the draft Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act – are successful.
That legislation seeks to extend the hospital-at-home program through 2027. The American Hospital Association (AHA) voiced its support of the policy on Tuesday.
“As you consider action beyond temporary extensions of the waiver, we would welcome the opportunity to work with you to establish and implement a permanent version of the program that enables qualified patients to receive safe and effective hospital-level care in the comfort and safety of their home,” AHA told Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who released the draft legislation last month.
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