iHealthBeat, Home Health Technology Could Ease Strain on Health Care System, by Kate Ackerman
In response to the RAND report’s findings, Philips Healthcare — along with the Home Care Technology Association of America, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the Visiting Nurses Association of America (VNAA) — sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and CMS Administrator Donald Berwick urging CMS to take steps to make home health care technologies more accessible.
The letter outlines multiple benefits for the use of patient-based monitoring systems within the Medicare and Medicaid home care system. However, it states, “While the case is already compelling, further evidence is needed to show the powerful benefits of home health care when integrated with and supported by remote monitoring technologies. This is the missing link to propel adoption in Medicare and Medicaid, which provide the bulk of the nation’s home care and serve the most vulnerable patients.”
The letter urges CMS to launch a large-scale demonstration project to determine whether the benefits achieved in a Department of Veterans Affairs project “can also be achieved in Medicare and Medicaid, with their more complex patient populations and broader home care benefits.”