Eight academic centers join effort to address home-care shortage
About 5% of the Medicare population—or 2 million beneficiaries—would benefit from home-based primary care. These patients are too sick to leave their home and have serious chronic conditions that require frequent visits from a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant.
Despite the demand for home care, only about 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries actually receive it because of a severe shortage of providers trained and willing to give such services, experts say.
“There just aren’t enough providers right now,” said Dr. Eric De Jonge, director of geriatrics at MedStar Washington (D.C.) Hospital Center.There are several reasons why doctors and other providers aren’t flocking to home-based care. The current fee-for-service reimbursement model is so low for home-care