Home Healthcare Services NAICS 621610

Aug 1, 2025 - Hospital-at-Home Waiver Extension Proposal Introduced

• Home health providers are likely to benefit from progress in the hospital-at-home (HaH) movement if Medicare waivers to treat patients in their homes are extended, according to Home Health Care News. The HaH movement has gained tremendous popularity since the launch of the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) program in 2020, enabling hospitals to qualify for Medicare waivers to treat patients in their homes. The waiver is set to expire in September, but health systems and lawmakers have introduced legislation that would extend the waiver until 2030. A long extension and a runway for further extensions would bolster critical referrals and give providers tools to engage with value-based reimbursement arrangements, according to Home Health Care News. Patients are reportedly highly satisfied with the model, with studies showing that it hastens recovery times.
• Medicare home health payments will increase 0.5% in 2025 under final rules issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The increase is slight but CMS had proposed a 1.7% cut in June. The home health prospective payment system final rule reflects the continued implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model. This formula bases reimbursements on patient characteristics rather than therapy hours and sets payments based on 30-day episodes instead of 60 days.

• Home health workforce shortages and rising wages are key reasons for rapidly-increasing home healthcare costs, according to Marc Cohen, co-director for the Leading Age Long Term Services and Supports Center at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Costs for home healthcare for the elderly and bed-ridden have increased 14.2% during the 12-month period ending in March 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That's the largest percent increase in home healthcare costs during a 12-month period since the BLS began collecting data on such costs in 2005. The median cost for a home health aide in 2023 was $33 an hour and that for a homemaker aide was $30 an hour, according to insurance company Genworth. The direct care sector is expected to add over 1 million new jobs by 2031, according to health care data analytics firm KFF, but those additional jobs will not be enough to meet the country’s rising eldercare needs.
• Home healthcare industry employment decreased slightly and average wages for nonsupervisory employees increased slightly during the first five months of 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Home healthcare services increased prices slightly during the first six months of 2025, according to the BLS. Industry sales are forecast to increase at a 6.44% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.