NAHC Joins with CMS in Campaign to Advance Home Quality

Washington, D.C. --  The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) today applauded the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for initiating the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign, a program to promote home care best practices. The campaign was unveiled yesterday in a day-long summit at CMS headquarters in Baltimore. The campaign seeks to reduce hospitalizations and produce significant cost savings for the Medicare system. All home health agencies across the country will be asked to join the campaign and receive monthly best practice information needed to reduce acute care hospitalization (ACH) rates.

"We congratulate CMS for bringing additional focus to the area of home care quality," said NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris. "The home care industry consistently produces high quality services, and that is no doubt a major reason why Americans prefer to receive care for post-acute and chronic health conditions at home. NAHC has been at the forefront of identifying best practices for home care agencies to limit patient re-hospitalizations, so joining this campaign is a natural fit."

NAHC has actively identified and promoted home care best practices and quality improvement. For instance, 2005 National Quality Improvement Hospitalization Reduction Study, a research project of Fazzi Associates, the Briggs Corporation and NAHC, identifies best practices that home health care agencies can use to limit re-hospitalizations. Since that time, NAHC has been working with CMS and the lead home health Quality Improvement Organization (QIO), Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, as well as other QIOs and home health stakeholders, on developing the CMS campaign. The hospitalization reduction study is available on the NAHC website.

Improving ACH rates can help both patients and taxpayers. According to CMS, home health agencies working intensively with their Quality Improvement Organizations to reduce avoidable hospitalizations demonstrated a 5.3% improvement in their rate of hospitalization--that represents a potential cost savings to the Medicare Trust Fund of $121.2 million dollars. These home health agencies focused on such best practice areas as emergency care plans, risk assessments, and telehealth utilization.

About NAHC
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice, the industry's oldest and most respected trade group, represents the interests of nearly 20,000 home care agencies and hospice organizations (including approximately 11,500 Medicare-certified home health agencies) that annually serve nearly nine million Americans as well as home care aide organizations, home care giving staff and their clients. NAHC members believe that quality home care and hospice, humane and cost-effective alternatives to institutionalization, are the right of all Americans. Home care and hospice reinforce and supplement the care provided by family members and friends and encourage maximum independence of thought and functioning as well as the preservation of human dignity.