Alternative measures of resource consumption in home care episodes

Expected changes in home health care reimbursement will require a shift in focus from a visit-based unit to some other yet-to-be-defined unit of resource consumption. Little research has been done to understand other measures of resource consumption, however, especially those examining disciplinary differences. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence on other measures of resource consumption as a way to frame discussions on alternative measures. Information is presented from a study of 102 home health care patients from 10 agencies in Ohio who completed an episode of care and remained at home. While the mean time per visit was similar for all disciplines (46 to 55 minutes), there were differences in the number of visits provided by various disciplines (home care aide services had the highest mean number of visits with 11.8). The mean cost per day for all services was $43.80 while the mean cost per episode was $1,160. Recommendations for further research include similar examinations using a more rigorous sampling methodology and including disparate populations of patients.