May 13, 2022 – As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people across the U.S. are eager to get their health care needs met at home. From telehealth and virtual care provider visits, to managing chronic conditions, recovering post-surgery, and aging in place, the demand for health care in the home has never been higher.
“Though there was a growing interest in health care at home prior to 2020, the pandemic forced the issue,” said Rob Schlissberg, president of Cardinal Health at-Home Solutions, a market-leading medical supplies provider serving people with chronic and serious health conditions in the United States. “Patients and providers alike wanted to do what they could to slow the spread of the virus.”
At the start of the pandemic, there was a dramatic increase in telehealth services alone: According to McKinsey & Company, telehealth use was 78 times higher in April 2020 than it had been two months earlier; more than 32% of total outpatient visits that month were via telehealth.
Today, if given the choice, patients are more likely to prefer to receive care for higher-acuity care needs at home, too, a trend that experts expect to accelerate. McKinsey & Company estimates that “up to $265 billion worth of care services for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries could shift to the home by 2025 without a reduction in quality or access” – a figure that is three to four times higher than the cost of care at home for this same audience today. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], more than 60 different conditions, including asthma, congestive heart failure, pneumonia and COPD, can be treated safely in the home…