Annals of Internal Medicine: Early Uptake of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver

Moving Health Home2023-05-24T16:33:48+00:00

Annals of Internal Medicine: Early Uptake of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver

Hospital at home (HaH) provides acute hospital-level care in a patient’s home as a substitute for traditional inpatient hospital care. Despite a robust evidence base, dissemination of HaH has been limited. One important barrier to scaling HaH has been the lack of a payment mechanism in traditional fee-for-service Medicare.

Excerpt: “Early analysis of the AHCaH individual waiver suggests rapid uptake and a strong appetite across a diverse array of hospitals, with the potential for significant capacity creation with a stable but slower uptake over time. The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated interest in HaH as hospitals and health systems have sought to implement approaches to increase hospital capacity. CMS deployed a new tool for capacity creation and processed individual waiver requests expeditiously.”