“Home care spending outpaces nursing home spending ‘by”

 

“Home care spending outpaces nursing home spending ‘by far’,” by Kathleen Steele Gaivin, McKnights Senior Living

“Spending on healthcare goods and services grew by 8.3% between May 2023 and May 2024, according to the latest monthly Health Sector Economics brief from Altarum, released Thursday. ‘Spending on home healthcare showed the fastest growth by far among major categories, at 22.6% year over year. Nursing home care spending was a distant second, at 9.5% year-over-year growth,’ George Miller, Altarum fellow and senior researcher, told the McKnight’s Business Daily on Thursday.”

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Nearly all that home health care spending growth came from utilization rather than price increases. Much more of the same is in the aging pipeline. So much for the idea that rebalancing from nursing homes to home care saves money. All those people using home care now will be staring down the high probability of a nursing home stay eventually driving total LTC spending through the roof.