Report: New Data Show Home-Based Care Saves Medicare Money

A study conducted by MedStar Washington Hospital Center found that home-based primary care incurred 17 percent lower overall Medicare costs over a course of two years.

The report published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society found patients who received home-based care had:

• 10 percent fewer ER visits,
• 9 percent fewer hospitalizations, and
• 27 percent fewer stays in a nursing home.

The study comes at an interesting time, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently imposed cuts of 14 percent on the Medicare home health benefit as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

The results add confusion to an already unprecedented, value-blind decision to cut cost-effective programs for our country’s most vulnerable patients – and it lends serious weight to objections to these cuts.

Eric De Jonge, MD, co-founder of the Medical House Call program at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, discussed the study in more detail in the video below: