From trends and tips to regulatory changes, what’s on the horizon for 2025 in homecare?

Home healthcare will continue to play an important part in 2025 as the consistent liaison between patients, families, and providers. While agencies will face ongoing challenges, they will also encounter opportunities for growth and change based on industry trends and revised regulations in the new year.

Industry Growth and Demand

Home healthcare is growing by leaps and bounds as an industry to meet the demand of a greying America. Due to the fact that the U.S population has reached its oldest median age, in combination with the desire of the elderly to age in place, home healthcare will continue to be called upon for help. HealthAffairs reports a projected national average annual growth rate of spending on home healthcare between 2025 and 2026 to increase by 7.1%. This projection is the leading category of spending amongst all healthcare sectors including hospitals (4.7%) and nursing home care (4.8%).  

Home health organizations will increasingly be called upon to expand their skillset to care for populations that are more acute and complex. This is due to both a trend in moving care away from inpatient care settings and an increase in the number of chronic diseases in the elderly. For example, the increasingly popular Hospitals at Home (H@H) model is hopeful to continue beyond its December 31^st, 2024 expiration to provide coverage for patients that meet criteria set by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) waiver to allow many acute conditions to be treated at home. To grasp the extent of the growth of this trend, it is reported that the H@H is expected to double by 2026. In addition, advances in medicine and an aging population combine to create what the World Health Organization identifies as “multimorbidity”, or the increase in the number of individuals with more than two chronic diseases. Providing quality care to these populations will require homecare staff to have expertise in how to best navigate the complexities by providing proactive, personalized, and holistic care. Staff will need to broaden their focus when providing care to ensure they are comprehensively evaluating the relationships between acute and chronic illnesses to prevent rehospitalizations.

Further, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the future of healthcare. McKnights Homecare suggests AI will support logistical challenges associated with home care such as scheduling, provider shortages, complex care and communication breakdowns between providers and patients. For example, AI can be utilized for 24/7 chatbot access to provide immediate patient access to navigate questions, better match skills of direct care workers with patients, create specialty care plans, predict or alarm direct care staff of concerning trends in a patient condition with remote monitoring. The future of AI is now, and home health agencies can thrive by adapting the use of technologies to improve operations within their organization.

Regulation and Policy Revisions

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Final Rule for Home Health Agencies (HHAs) on November 1, 2024. This rule includes many updates and revisions to be aware of. A few highlights include:

• Payment rate updates to 30-day period payments and national per-visit amounts with estimated overall spending on HHA to increase 0.5% (approximately $85 million) in CY 2025 compared to CY 2024.
• An increase in the payment rate for patients with primary immune deficiency disease when they meet the criteria for medical necessity for treatment with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG).
• Revised Conditions of Participation (COPs) require agencies to conduct annual reviews of staffing levels, staff competencies, case mix, and current caseloads.
• Agencies must provide greater transparency to the public and disclose accurate information about their services, including specialty care options.
• Modifications to OASIS, adding vaccination status for COVID-19, removing items related to episode timing, therapy need and discharge goals.

The CY 2025 also marks a milestone as the first Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model payment year for those previously enrolled. The program, implemented by CMS, is set to continue growing in the upcoming year as the focus of care becomes quality over quantity.

Continued Challenge, New Approaches

Home health agencies will face the familiar challenge of staffing shortages in 2025. The demands of direct care have turned away many potential caregivers, and the risk of losing newly hired staff is staggering. Agencies can, however, look to 2025 as the year to begin implementing new approaches to sustain smooth operations and see growth. Several strategies to target staffing and retention can include:

• Utilizing employee engagement approaches such as focusing on the well-being of employees through promoting a positive workplace culture, improving environmental safety, implementing a workplace well-being program or recognition program for a job well done.
• Empowering direct caregivers through providing thorough education and training of the patient populations served including specialty medical equipment. Assign mentors for new staff and consider implementing a nurse mentor program to support and retain new nurses.
• Consider utilizing a home health software program that is easy to use for staff, is mobile ready, allows interoperability to improve communications between staff and caregivers, and makes regulatory compliance simple. The right technology will support staff productivity, reduce burdens, and help curb burnout.

The Takeaway

By taking at least one innovative approach to address continued challenges in 2025, embracing industry growth and regulatory changes, home health agencies can position themselves for success in the coming year. Cheers to the new year!

References

1. Hospitals at Home (H@H)
2. Employee engagement approaches
3. Calendar Year (CY) 2025 Final Rule for Home Health Agencies (HHAs)
4. McKnights Homecare
5. Hospitals at Home (H@H)
6. The U.S population has reached its oldest median age
7. H@H is expected to double by 2026

Related Blogs

1. The 2024 Year in review in home health
2. Caring for the aging baby boomer population in home health
3. Developing strong homecare teams