Payment reforms, technology and government support are combining to drive strong momentum for the hospital-at-home (HaH) model. That is the finding from a study released Monday by business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
The company pointed to support from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and an increase in the number of health systems using the model from six last November to 109 at the end of March as evidence HaH is gaining traction.
“Home care was largely confined to low-acuity services, but the availability of advanced remote monitoring and digital health solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and robotics is causing a shift. Further, remote monitoring and telehealth technologies are expected to witness a high growth rate of 35% to 40% with a major push coming from the home care segment,” Kaustubh Suresh Savant, healthcare and life sciences research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said.
In March of last year, CMS announced the Hospitals Without Walls program, which provided hospitals greater flexibility in delivering care beyond their existing facilities. The program expanded in November.
The study found the U.S. still lags behind some European countries in bringing healthcare into homes, but the pace of rolling out acute care at home could increase.
Savant said changing reimbursement models and the healthcare provider shortage will be big drivers of HaH, along with better analytics, the integration of medical records and enhanced education of healthcare staff.
The U.S. healthcare systems using HaH include Rochester, MN-based Mayo Clinic, Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital and Des Moines, IA-based UnityPoint Health.
