Opening the Front Door to Better Care

Opening the Front Door to Better Care
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This article is co-authored with Dr. Bruce Leff, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Transformative Geriatric Research at Johns Hopkins @HopkinsMedicine.

America is experiencing a dramatic population shift -- one that will turn the country on its head. As Baby Boomers age, more people will live with chronic conditions, like heart disease or dementia, and many will have difficulty with basic abilities like walking and managing their household.

These shifts will create enormous challenges for our country. We must do everything possible to ensure that older Americans remain independent and healthy at home, without experiencing the suffering, indignity, and costs associated with unnecessary hospitalizations and institutionalization.

Our success in answering this call will dictate quality of life vs. suffering for millions of people. The country's economic health is also at stake as the growing costs of Medicare and Medicaid threaten to squeeze out funding for other priorities. A key to solving this vexing problem is improving access to quality care at home.

In the wake of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, we are seeing a shift toward more care coordination and "value-based" care. These trends have led to more interest by doctors and hospitals in helping people succeed in home and community-based settings.

This new attention is a good start, but it's not enough.

The focus of current reform efforts has centered on insurers, hospitals, physicians, and employers. Home-based care has been left out of high profile national policy conversations, despite the fact that most older Americans prefer to stay at home and "age in place."

Our policymakers aren't putting enough time and resources into strengthening home health care and developing new home-based care strategies. Further, some home care policy proposals actually risk hurting the positive programs that already exist.

Out of this leadership void, the Future of Home Health (FOHH) Project was born. Developed by the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation , the FOHH Project has taken on the challenge of starting a national conversation on these issues and the project really picked up steam when the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) hosted 'The Future of Home Health Care' workshop. The summary book and videos from the workshop are available online.

A few overarching themes recurred throughout the workshop, these themes could provide a head start for leaders interested in improving care:

1.There's no place like home. Stakeholders from many backgrounds called for a shift towards community based care--making the home the center of care whenever possible. Family caregivers at the workshop were especially passionate about the importance of home care.

2.Better care at lower costs. Home health care of the future must be a solution to high costs and quality of care concerns. One example is Medicare's Independence at Home Demonstration, which is showing that medical teams that make house calls to Medicare's sickest and most costly patients at home can support these individuals and save lots of money.

3.Payment policy and regulations need improvement. To build and grow new approaches to home care there will need to be policy and payment changes that support innovation. Many current policies and programs are fragmented and outdated. There should be more coordination, integration, and alignment around addressing both medical and social issues. Several historical policies and programs have created an unnatural separation between medical and social concerns even though high quality care for an aging population requires both to work in concert.

4.Don't forget about the workforce! We must improve training, especially in geriatrics and palliative care, for all types of health professionals. Developing people to work in team-based care will be key.

5.Technology, technology, technology. Smart use of mobile health, health information, remote monitoring, telemedicine, independent living, and point of care technologies are essential for the shift towards home and community based care.

6.Accurate report cards. Quality and outcomes will need to be measured in order to reflect the value of community and home-based care. We must take care to ensure appropriate quality measures that fit the needs and goals of older people with multiple medical problems, rather than current measures that often focus on single diseases.

The ultimate goal of the FOHH Project is to develop a framework for home health delivery in the future and to take advantage of the many promising innovations that have not been scaled widely due to gaps in policy and for lack of attention.

These efforts serve as a foundation for beginning a discussion, but more national dialogue is required, with input from a wide range of leaders. To truly have a person-centered, compassionate, and responsible healthcare system we must work on building a bright future and prominent role for home health care.

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