Top Home Health Trends For 2023

Home Health Care News | By Andrew Donlan
 
Home health care’s 2022 was dimmed by the dark cloud of Medicare rate cuts. That cloud still hangs overhead in 2023.
 
To weather the storm, providers are scrambling to find answers to persistent problems, namely staffing shortages. At the same time, they’re renegotiating arrangements with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and pivoting from certain service lines to others. They’re attempting to become more efficient – in any way possible.
 
Just like any new year in the home health industry, 2023 brings an onslaught of challenges, but also opportunities.
 
As January gets underway, the team at Home Health Care News took a stab at identifying top trends for 2023. The following are based on our research, reporting and extensive industry knowledge.
 
Curious what we forecasted for last year? Revisit our 2022 predictions here.
 
The number of home health agencies will continue to decline
 
Over the past few years, the number of existing home health agencies has steadily decreased.
 
In 2020, there were 9,378 agencies, compared to 9,893 in 2019 and 10,852 in 2014, according to the Research Institute for Home Care’s 2022 Home Care Chartbook.
 
There are a number of factors that suggest this will continue.
 
One of these is the ongoing staffing challenges providers are facing. While staffing has alway been a pain point, the impact of the pandemic has put a severe strain on recruitment and retention. Further compounding matters, nurses have left health care altogether due to burnout.
 
Even though the home health industry’s average turnover rate has gone down slightly, it hasn’t been a significant enough dent to improve staffing conditions for providers. There were signs of improvement in the back half of 2022, but perhaps not enough to keep up with mounting demand set forth by the country’s aging population.
 
In 2022, the turnover rate for LPNs was 30.25%, down from 36.54% 2021, and 31.19% for RNs, down from 32.35% in the previous year, according to data from the most recent Home Care Salary & Benefits report from Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service.
 
Ultimately, not having enough labor has limited growth: Last year, David Totaro, chief government affairs officer at Bayada Home Health Care, said that the company had a nearly 67% referral decline rate. As an industry the home health decline rate was 58% last year, according to CarePort data.

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