Home-Based Care Leaders See M&A, New Payment, Technology As Biggest Opportunities For 2025

Home health providers have lately been hamstrung by payment rate cuts, staffing woes and Medicare Advantage (MA) penetration. However, despite these obstacles, the industry still holds significant potential and numerous untapped opportunities. Looking ahead to 2025, it is anticipated that M&A, updated payment models, and innovations in staffing and retention will be key themes. Additionally, […]

LTM Group Reduces Hospitalizations By 32%, Gets Clinicians ‘Engaged’ In Value-Based Care

In today’s home health landscape, value-based purchasing is part of the race to the top. Agencies know that in order to achieve certain financial success, the outcomes have to be there. “Providers know that everybody’s getting better,” LTM Group CEO David Kerns told Home Health Care News. “That’s the whole idea of the program. If […]

Top Home Care Trends For 2024

The rising costs of home care were a trend in 2022 and 2023. They will remain one in 2024, and could finally come to a head. That’s only one trend, of many, that will impact home care providers in the new year. But it alone will also lead to other trends, such as increased M&A, […]

‘We Need To Go Where The Patients Are’: How Home Health Agencies Are Adjusting To Medicare Advantage

Medicare Advantage (MA) enrollment has been on a steady climb over the last two decades. As such, home health agencies have started to adjust operations to better fit the payer landscape in the future. Agencies in states like Michigan, Hawaii and Alabama have already had to do that — and those transitions haven’t been seamless. […]

For Home Health Providers, Clinician Scheduling Stands Out As Turnover Culprit

Staffing is a universal pain point for home health providers. Specifically, that pain point is about recruiting and retaining talent, and most provider leaders argue that retention is the area their organizations need to focus on. Break retention down even further, though, and you find a main culprit for turnover: scheduling. “[Scheduling] is one of […]

How A Smaller Home Health Provider Goes Big On Value- And Risk-Based Contracting

Small- and mid-sized home health providers are aware of the disadvantages they face compared to their larger peers. They’re also recognizing, however, that they can use the flexibilities they do have to their advantage. Take value-based care as an example. Large providers typically have more resources at their disposal to invest in the infrastructure needed […]

‘Is It A Good Or Bad Thing?’: How Providers, Advocates Feel About Optum’s Home Health Entrance

When it was first announced that the home health giant LHC Group was being acquired in March 2022, it wasn’t shocking. What was shocking, at least to some, was the buyer – UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum. Though Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) had already acquired Kindred at Home, UnitedHealth Group getting into the mix was […]

Market Density, Payer Agnosticism Help Mid-Sized Home Health Providers Punch Above Their Weight

At the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s (NAHC) Financial Management Conference this week, I did not get the sense that home health providers are collectively discouraged about their futures. Instead, I got the sense that they are becoming more action-driven. Even smaller providers are finding ways to adjust their businesses as a means […]