New Nonprofit Industry Association Launches to Advocate for High-Quality, Affordable Home-Based Health Care

Health at home is a priority: 87% of America’s seniors say they want
to stay in their home as they age

Home-based care spending in the U.S. is expected to grow 70% in three
years, from $80B to $137B by 2020

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#health–The Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA) today launched
ElevatingHOME, a new 501(c)6 organization that brings together America’s
home-based care providers to advocate for high-quality, affordable home
care. ElevatingHOME will unify the myriad voices of home-based health
care and reposition home-based care as the center of health care
delivery.

Industry leaders say the need for a consolidated organization to
advocate for home-based care is acute. With 10,000 Baby Boomers
enrolling in Medicare daily, this segment of the health care industry is
expected to grow more than 70 percent in the next three years—from
approximately $80 billion today to $137 billion by 2020. When surveyed,
87 percent of America’s seniors say they want to stay in their own home
as they age and would prefer to receive medical care at home when
possible.

“Most patients—seniors, but others too—prefer to receive medical care at
home when possible, but the current health care delivery system design
is organized around costly and sometimes unnecessary hospital stays,”
said Joseph Scopelliti, President and CEO, VNA Health System of
Shamokin, Pennsylvania and Chair, ElevatingHOME Board of Directors.
“When people can receive the care they need in their own homes, amidst
familiar surroundings with family and friends nearby, they often have
better health outcomes at lower costs.”

Introduced at this week’s 2017
Home-Based Care: National Leadership Conference in San Diego,
Calif., ElevatingHOME will represent both nonprofit and for-profit
home-based care providers. The Council of State Home Care Associations
will also join ElevatingHOME as a founding member.

“The Council of State Home Care Associations, which has a long history
of working collaboratively with many national organizations committed to
advancing home health care, is very excited to work in partnership with
ElevatingHOME by virtue of the unanimous vote of our Executive
Committee,” said Tim Rogers, Chairman, Council of State Home Care
Associations and President and CEO of the Association for Home and
Hospice Care of North Carolina and the South Carolina Home Care and
Hospice Association.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) says there are
approximately 12,350 home health agencies in the United States—more than
double the number of hospitals—and nearly 4,100 hospice organizations.
Even though seniors prefer to receive care in their homes, the current
health care delivery system drives patients to receive care in a
hospital or a skilled nursing facility. Patients and caregivers find it
difficult to choose home-based care due to lack of information,
burdensome regulations and complicated insurance policies that make
choosing home-based care more difficult for patients.

ElevatingHOME will be led by a Board of Directors consisting of leaders
representing both for-profit and nonprofit home-based care agencies. In
addition to Mr. Scopelliti, other founding members of the Board of
Directors include: J. Mark Baiada, Founder and President, BAYADA Home
Health Care, Susan Brouillette, MBA, MPH, CEO, Alacare Home Health and
Hospice, Erin Denholm, RN, MSN, RWJENF, President and CEO, Trinity
Health at Home, Norene Mostkoff, MBA, President and CEO, Visiting Nurse
Health System, Marcia Reissig, RN, MS, CEO, Sutter Care at Home, and Bob
Fazzi, EdD, Founder and Managing Partner, Fazzi Associates. Tracey
Moorhead, President and CEO of VNAA, has been appointed President and
CEO of ElevatingHOME.

Experts believe home-based care can play three critical roles in a
redesigned health care delivery system: partnering with primary care;
providing post-acute and acute care at home; and partnering with home
and community-based long-term care providers. “Home-based care is
carefully designed to provide care that people of all ages need – from
wellness visits and chronic disease management to palliative, advanced
illness and hospice care – and it is generally provided at lower costs
than similar care provided in a medical institution,” said Moorhead.
“Not only can home-based care services substitute for higher-cost
hospital care, it can also ensure that patients who have been
hospitalized do not wind up back in the hospital soon after being
discharged.”

As an example, New Jersey-based BAYADA Home Health Care has focused on
training its staff and creating system-wide best practices to reduce
unnecessary hospitalizations and improve patient outcomes around heart
failure. The provider has seen an 85.9 percent decrease in
hospitalizations after 30 days and significant patient outcomes in
better ambulation, reduced dyspnea, and reductions in pain that
restricts activity.

In the months ahead, ElevatingHOME will focus on advancing home-based
care as the central and critical component of health care delivery by:

• Demonstrating the role of home-based care in meeting patients’ health
  care needs at home;
• Developing and disseminating best practices for home-based care;
• Establishing a high standard of operational integrity;
• Elevating the level of public, private, foundation, academic and
  legislative support for the patients and families served;
• Advancing financial models to support a robust home-based care
  industry while delivering value along the broader health care
  continuum.

About ElevatingHOME

Launched in 2017, ElevatingHOME is a 501(c)6 organization established
to advance and strengthen the home-based care industry. Representing
home-based care providers including home health, palliative care and
hospice, ElevatingHOME aims to advance cost-effective, high-quality,
patient-centered health care that starts at home.

About The Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA)

VNAA is a national organization that supports, promotes and advocates
for mission-driven providers of home health, hospice and palliative
care. VNAA’s members provide cost-effective and compassionate home
health and hospice care to the nation’s most vulnerable individuals,
particularly the elderly and individuals with disabilities.

Contacts

McCabe Message Partners
Bethany Hardy, 202-868-4835
bhardy@messagepartnersPR.com