Metrics Matter: When It Comes to Home Health – If You Build It, Will They Come?

“If you build it, [they] will come.” For those of you familiar with the film Field of Dreams, you know this is the message that inspired the character played by Kevin Costner to build a baseball diamond in the midst of his cornfield in Iowa. In this month’s metric, we demonstrate how this message seems to apply to Medicare home health, too. For example, the number of agencies billing Medicare grew from 6,869 to 10,159 between 2003 and 2009 – an increase of 47.9%. During the same time period, home health utilization rose by 25.3%, from 7.8% to 10.4%.

The Source of Growth in Home Health Revenue between 2007 and 2008
 

Based on our analysis of Medicare Claims and Data Reports from 2003 through 2009, we conclude the following:

  • When the increase in number of Medicare agencies was compared to the change in utilization at the state level between 2003 and 2009, there was a greater than 50% correlation between the two factors. This supports the forecast in the Field of Dreams – as the number of home health agencies has increased, so has the number of individuals accessing the Medicare home health benefit.
  • Approximately half of the states demonstrated virtually no growth or negative growth in the number of Medicare certified agencies.
  • Eight states and territories – Hawaii, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oregon, Vermont, and Puerto Rico – had negative growth in home health utilization. Each of these states also had no or negative growth in the number of agencies.
  • Six states – Florida, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and California – represent 90% of the growth in agencies from 2003 to 2009.
  • Of the eight states that had at least 50% growth in the utilization rate, five of them saw their agency count increase by more than 100%, while two states (Minnesota and South Carolina) accomplished this feat with negative or no growth in their agencies.

Click here or call 215-657-7373 to learn more about this metric and the many ways you can use Healthcare Market Resources’ data to help identify growth opportunities for your organization.