Implications of 2020 Skilled Home Healthcare Payment Reform for Persons with Dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Background/objectives

The Medicare home health benefit provides episodic skilled home-based clinical care to the growing population of community-dwelling persons with dementia. As of January 1, 2020, home health payment changed: episodes shortened from 60 to 30 days, and episodes initiated in the community are now reimbursed at lower rates than episodes following institutional stays. We aim to assess the potential impact of these policy changes on this population.

Design/setting

Cross-sectional study using the Medicare claims-linked National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS).

Participants

A total of 1,867 NHATS respondents who received home health between 2011 and 2017.

Measurements

Dementia was defined through both self-report and a validated cognitive ass

SUBMITTER: Ankuda CK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7718285 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature