What's Holding up Hospital at Home?

Widespread adoption of acute-level care at home models has been hampered by physician reluctance and patchwork reimbursement. Buzz around hospital-at-home programs, which allow patients to receive acute-level care at home while shaving down costs, was snowballing even before the pandemic drove unprecedented use of virtual care and remote monitoring tools.

But widespread adoption of such models has been hamstrung by physician uncertainty and patchwork reimbursement policies. And a government waiver that threw open the doors to providing hospital care at home during the pandemic is set to expire when the public health emergency does, sparking concerns among hospital-at-home proponents that much of the progress made in the arena during COVID-19 could quickly roll back.

Hospital at home has seen progress in some areas, including in investment and interest from major hospital systems like Kaiser Permanente and Mayo Clinic. But uptake is slow, as some patients and providers are reluctant to participate. Change management is a major roadblock to wider adoption, experts said at HIMSS.