The Value of Home Health Care

Former Senators and Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist issued an op-ed noting the importance of home-based care and technologies to enable home-based care. The former Sens. call for policymakers to think, “beyond essential medical services and consider the non-medical drivers of health that are often as essential to good health outcomes.” The Senators conclude several key takeaways including:

• Home based care is cost-effective for patients and providers.
• Home care helps to address social isolation, the onset of potential severe illness, and hospital readmission.
• Nursing and medical staff allows for in the home supplemental benefits.
• Private sector companies have been innovative in creating technology that make in patient care technologies enabled in home environments like patient monitoring devices, infusion therapy, and dialysis machines.