Annals of Internal Medicine: Early Uptake of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver
Annals of Internal Medicine has published a brief research report, "Early Uptake of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver."
To help meet the challenges of delivering health care services in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued “Hospitals Without Walls” regulatory guidance that waived certain physical environment and Life Safety Code Medicare hospital conditions of participation. On November 25, 2020, CMS announced a comprehensive strategy to enhance hospital capacity, including the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCaH) individual waiver. Hospitals qualifying for the individual waiver receive the full hospital-level diagnosis-related group payment for services provided at home.
The researchers analyzed data from the AHCaH CMS dashboard, including applicant volume and characteristics and linked hospitals holding a waiver to the American Hospital Association's 2019 Annual Survey to determine hospital characteristics. The paper talks about Hospital at Home, which provides acute hospital-level care in a patient's home as a substitute for traditional inpatient hospital care, and analyzes the characteristics of hospitals that took up the AHCaH waiver.
To access the abstract, click here.
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