Does the Veterans Health Administration Purchase High-Quality Home Health Care?

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Veterans are frequently referred for skilled home health care (HHC) after hospital discharge. We examined access to high-quality VA-contracted home health agencies (HHAs) for Veterans following a VA medical center (VAMC) hospitalization and by rural or urban residence.

Design

Retrospective observational study.

Setting and participants

We used national VA data from April 2015 to September 2019 and included all Veterans discharged from a VAMC hospitalization who received skilled HHC paid for by VA.

Methods

We assigned every eligible discharge a choice set of VA-contracted HHAs serving the Veteran's county and a choice set of all HHAs serving the Veteran's county. We calculated a quality ratio (QR): the percentage of high-quality VA-contracted (4- or 5-

SUBMITTER: Kennedy KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12908083 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature