Opinion: Home care instead of hospital care: Congress should extend a crucial waiver

Home hospital programs across the U.S. are at significant risk of contraction unless Congress acts to extend the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver.

Hospitals can be places of healing and, at times, harm, particularly for older adults with complex medical conditions. For appropriately selected patients requiring hospital care, home hospital care offers the benefits of hospital care in the comfort and safety of the home and facilitates better understanding of patients’ medical and social context.

Home hospital programs across the country expanded after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began to pay for these services in November 2020 as a remedy for the pressures hospitals faced during the pandemic.

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