Nurse practitioners provided more home care visits than Medicare physicians to traditional Medicare beneficiaries from 2012 to 2016, a study in the HealthAffairs journal revealed.
During that time, most home care providers each provided fewer than 200 home visits annually to fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries. The majority of Medicare physicians each provided about 50 home visits. Meanwhile, the number of home-visiting nurse practitioners almost doubled, and the average number of home visits they made increased each year.
The study also found that the number of participating home care providers in traditional Medicare increased from about 14,100 in 2012 to around 16,600 in 2016. Approximately 4,000 providers joined or reentered that workforce annually, and 3,000 stopped or paused participation. Despite generally low overall participation of traditional Medicare providers in home-based care, the workforce has experienced steady growth, the study concluded. That is due in part to increased nurse practitioner participation.
