As the primary care workforce is shrinking due to an aging physician population and fewer new doctors entering the field, home health care can help bridge this gap and ensure patients receive essential services.
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In response to growing challenges across the healthcare sector, leaders and policymakers have renewed their focus on primary care, recognizing it as the foundation of a stronger, more efficient health system. Just last month, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission sounded the alarm on primary care’s decline, warning that access is deteriorating.
This growing access gap is forcing more patients into emergency departments, an expensive and inefficient alternative straining hospitals already operating at capacity. Strengthening primary care is essential, but it’s not enough. Home health care must be part of the solution.
Nonprofit home health providers, such as visiting nurse associations, share the same core mission as primary care: keeping patients healthy in their homes. Through skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and chronic disease management, home health clinicians help patients recover safely and avoid hospital readmission by intervening before complications escalate. These clinicians also provide compassionate, high-quality care with a deeper understanding of patients’ needs based on their environments.
As the primary care workforce is shrinking due to an aging physician population and fewer new doctors entering the field, home health care can help bridge this gap and ensure patients receive essential services.
Providing care in a home setting is often more cost-effective than hospital care, making it an attractive solution for policymakers concerned with the rising cost of health care. Beyond cost savings, home health allows patients to remain in their homes and communities, where most people want to be. Yet, despite its value, home health continues to be overlooked in funding and policy discussions.
To fully integrate home health into the state’s healthcare strategy, policymakers must take action. Reimbursement models should be restructured to fairly compensate home health providers, and funding discussions cannot leave this sector behind. Stronger collaboration between home health agencies and primary care providers must be encouraged to ensure smoother patient transitions and better-coordinated care. Workforce development initiatives should be expanded to support the growing demand for home-based care.
By recognizing home health as an integral part of the healthcare ecosystem, Massachusetts can improve patient outcomes, alleviate pressure on hospitals, and build a more sustainable model of care. As the state works to strengthen primary care, it must embrace nonprofit home health as a key partner in achieving the shared goal of high-quality, patient-centered care.
Todd Rose is the recently retired CEO of VNA Care, based in Worcester, the state's largest independent nonprofit home health, hospice, and palliative care provider.
