Home Health Hospital Admissions

There was widespread improvement in this indicator between 2018 and 2021. In 33 states, the percentage of home health patients with a hospital admission decreased significantly. The only state to show a significant increase between 2018 and 2021 was the District of Columbia where the percentage of home health hospital admissions rose from 14.0 percent to 15.3 percent The U.S. average of 14.1 percent is the lowest national rate of home health hospital admissions ever reported in the Scorecard. This decline in hospital admission rates is likely related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led many people to delay or forgo hospital services when possible.

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12.1%

Best State Performance

14.1%

US Value

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Methodology

The percentage of home health stays for patients who have a Medicare claim for an unplanned admission to an acute care hospital during the 60 days following the start of the home health stay.

Current year 2021 national and state-level data for how often home health patients had to be admitted to the hospital are from CMS, Home health services data archive. Current data are from the 1/24/2023 archive data, for the data year July 2020 – June 2021. Reference year data are from the 1/4/2020 archive data, for the data year January 2018 – December 2018.

CMS, Home health services data archive, (Baltimore, MD: US Department of Health & Human Services, archive dates 1/4/2020 and 1/24/2023), https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/archived-data/home-health-services.