Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE NEW IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • COVID-19
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Digital Health
  • Insights
    • ACA 10 Years After
    • Best Practices
    • Special Reports
    • Innovations
  • Data/Lists
    • Rankings/Lists
    • Interactive Databases
    • Data Points
  • Op-Ed
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Awards
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
    • Women in Healthcare
    • - Luminaries
    • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
    • - Leaders to Watch
    • - Luminaries
    • - Top 25 Women Leaders
    • - Women to Watch
  • Events
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
    • Transformation Summit
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Strategic Marketing
    • - Virtual Health
  • Listen
    • Podcast - Next Up
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • MORE +
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Transformation Hub

Where healthcare challenges find solutions

  • Patients
  • Operations
  • Care Delivery
  • Payment
Care Delivery
October 14, 2021 04:28 PM

Mayo, Kaiser form coalition to extend hospital at home into the future

Lisa Gillespie
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    mayo-kaiser_i.jpg

    Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente formed a new coalition to push HHS and Congress to keep their hospital-at-home programs and investments going post-pandemic.

    Hospitals across the country have spent big in moving acute care to patients' home as COVID-19 tested the safety and capacity of systems to keep caring for patients within their facilities. For instance, Mayo and Kaiser in May invested $100 million in Medically Home, which partners with systems to provide services like emergency care and cancer care. Many other members of the new coalition also use the company, like Adventist Health, ProMedica and UNC Health. Other systems have built their own programs.

    Eventually, the national public health emergency that allowed CMS to create the Hospital Without Walls program will end, and reimbursement for these services will stop. This new sector has exploded thanks to the new payments, which were largely restricted to special populations previously.

    The Advanced Care at Home Coalition will work on creating a blueprint for a new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation model that would allow providers to apply for continued flexibilities in the longer term. But CMMI models usually take years to develop and implement, so they're also working on a bill that Congress could pass to extend Hospital Without Walls if there is a hard stop to the public health emergency.

    "It would be a substantial disruption for providers," said Mara McDermott, the executive director at the new coalition. "All this infrastructure has been put in place. But there's also a very strong patient care component to the disruption that would really be a shame to have lost all this progress that we've made during the pandemic."

    The health systems are also collecting information on how acute care at home programs have seen changes in Medicare costs, patient experience, quality outcomes and health equity.

    That data will be critical as hospital-at-home programs question the logistics of delivering their care. While there is research showing that some of these programs did increase hospital inpatient capacity, it's not clear if quality outcomes maintained, or if the programs need new quality and safety metrics.

    Anne Tumlinson, CEO and founder of long-term care consulting firm ATI Advisor, said it will be crucial to make sure there aren't racial or socioeconomic factors that affect whether patients can receive a hospital level of care at their homes.

    "I think this points to the big challenge policymakers will face next year when the public health emergency ends: They are going to have to make some hard decisions about which new care modalities (like hospital at home or telehealth) to keep or toss," Tumlinson said. "The primary challenge will be in designing new permanent programs under financial incentives that emphasize value over volume."

    Another coalition — called Moving Health Home — formed earlier this year, with Intermountain Healthcare and Ascension, along with several home-based care companies including hospital-at-home provider DispatchHealth and home-based complex care provider Signify Health, tackling a much broader agenda. The group wants a bigger move toward care in the home and is pushing for Medicare to pay for EMT services even when a patient isn't taken to the hospital and primary care and infusion services at home. The group also called for extending a bundled model that serves as an alternative to skilled nursing facility stays.

    Tumlinson said it's crucial to have groups focusing on tackling answering questions of how programs have worked, but she cautioned that there should still be a focus by systems and policymakers on preventing hospitalizations and public health.

    "There's no question we need to reduce the use of inpatient hospital care," Tumlinson said. "But is the solution to just switch the setting for this level of care or to prevent it in the first place?"

    Tags: Care Delivery, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Congress, Healthcare Reform, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, This Week in Healthcare, Transformation, Transformation Hub
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    mh20190325_telehealth_WEB_i_i.jpg
    CVS Health launches virtual primary care platform
    Man providing insurance card to healthcare provider
    Latest insurer-led care delivery model has decades-old roots
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • COVID-19
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Digital Health
    • Insights
      • ACA 10 Years After
      • Best Practices
      • Special Reports
      • Innovations
    • Data/Lists
      • Rankings/Lists
      • Interactive Databases
      • Data Points
    • Op-Ed
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Awards
      • Nominate/Eligibility
      • 100 Most Influential People
      • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
      • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
      • Excellence in Governance
      • Health Care Hall of Fame
      • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
      • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
      • Top 25 Innovators
      • Diversity in Healthcare
        • - Luminaries
        • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
        • - Leaders to Watch
      • Women in Healthcare
        • - Luminaries
        • - Top 25 Women Leaders
        • - Women to Watch
    • Events
      • Conferences
        • Transformation Summit
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Leadership Symposium
      • Galas
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Strategic Marketing
        • - Virtual Health
      • Webinars
      • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
    • Listen
      • Podcast - Next Up
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • MORE +
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing