What’s Happening at Home

Background: Home clinical care (HCC) includes home-based medical care (HBMC—medical visits in the home) and skilled home health care (skilled nursing or therapy visits). Over 7 million older adults would benefit from HCC; however, we know surprisingly little about homebound older adults and HCC. Objective: To describe HCC received by older adults using claims data within the OptumLabs Data Warehouse. Research Design: Using administrative claims data for commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees, we describe morbidity profiles, health service use, and care coordination (operationalized as care plan oversight [CPO]) for people receiving HCC and the subgroup receiving HBMC. Participants: Three million adults (3,027,247) age ≥65 with 12 months of continuous enrollment 2013–2014. Measures: CPT or HCPCS codes delineated HCC, HBMC, and CPO recipients and care site, frequency, and provider type. Other measures included demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, and health care utilization. Results: Overall, 5% of the study population (n=161,801) received 2+ months of HCC visits; of these, 46% also received 2+ HBMC visits (n=73,638) while 54% received only skilled home health (n=88,163 HCC but no HBMC). HBMC-recipients had high comorbidity burden (Charlson score 4.3), dementia (35%), and ambulance trips (58%), but few nursing facility admissions (4.9%). Evidence of care coordination (CPO claims) occurred in 30% of the HCC population, 46% of HBMC, and 17% of the skilled home health care only. Conclusions: Approximately 1 of 20 older adults in this study received HCC; 30% or less have a claim for care coordination by their primary care provider.