Grand opening, grand closing. Hospice providers began to work with Medicare Advantage (MA) via the Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) demonstration in 2021. At the end of 2024, the “hospice carve-in” model will cease. This will have an impact on home health providers who offer hospice services, obviously. But the failure of hospice’s fit within VBID […]
Category: Medicare Advantage
In 2023, Medicare Advantage (MA) plan members represented more than half of all Medicare beneficiaries for the first time. In 2024, while penetration continues, there are other trends within MA that home-based care providers should be paying attention to. Seniors have more options than ever when choosing MA plans. But a few of the top […]
Earlier this week, Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) CEO Tim Wentworth teased a “strategic review” of the company’s assets, including those within the U.S. Healthcare segment. Meanwhile, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) CFO Tom Cowhey provided updates on where Aetna may go with its supplemental benefits in the near-term future. “We are now meaningfully looking at […]
Home health patients under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have worse functional outcomes compared to traditional Medicare patients, likely as a result of receiving fewer visits, according to a new study. The new study is from researchers with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at University of Washington. “The primary message of this study is that Medicare […]
Medicare Advantage (MA) supplemental benefits have expanded and evolved over the last five or six years, but there’s a need to concretely prove their value. One way to do so would be by mirroring the regulatory model state Medicaid programs use for home- and community-based services. That’s one of the key takeaways from a report […]
Dina — a digital network management company for home- and community-based services — recently closed a $7 million funding round. The round was led by venture capital investor First Analysis, with participation from existing investors Osage Venture Partners and First Trust Capital Partners. Dina also counts SCAN Group as one of its investors. The organization […]
Around 2019, Medicare Advantage (MA) was all the rave among home care providers. That’s because, in 2018 and 2019, two pathways opened for MA plans to provide more benefits to beneficiaries: the primarily health-related benefit pathway and the Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) pathway. Included in those were plenty of areas of […]
On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its 2025 proposed payment updates for the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Programs. These updates to the payment policies come at a time when MA enrollment continues to skyrocket. Under the proposal, MA plans would see a 3.70% — or […]
When there are as many problems to hurdle in a space such as home health care, leaders have to prioritize. Interestingly enough, not many companies have the same top priorities, however. The priorities are a good reflection of what home health leaders believe will lead to solutions. Their priorities are generally not what you would […]
In terms of home-based care providers’ relationship with payers, Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: AVAH) CEO Jeff Shaner believes that the next few years will be “transformative.” Providers will have to be intentional in their agreements to reach the future success they desire, Shaner believes. He said so on Tuesday during a panel discussion at […]