Reports Outline Managed Care Findings from Harvard University (Community-Entry Home Health Made Up Nearly Half Of Home Health Episodes And Spending In Traditional Medicare, 2017-21): Managed Care

2026 JAN 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting from Cambridge, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Medicare home health care is often characterized as a postacute care benefit, yet community-entry users-those admitted without a preceding hospitalization-account for nearly half of all spending and episodes in traditional Medicare. Using Medicare administrative data from 2017, 2019, and 2021, we analyzed differences between community-entry and postacute home health users.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Harvard University, “Community-entry beneficiaries were older; were more likely to be dually eligible; and had substantially higher rates of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, and depression compared with postacute users. Despite these clinical differences, visit patterns remained similar between groups. We documented significant state-level variation in community-entry prevalence, with changes in community-entry share that were positively associated with changes in overall home health spending.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Our findings reveal a fundamental tension between policies that favor postacute care and the reality of Medicare home health use, which serves a substantial population with clinical and demographic profiles that differ from those of postacute care users.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Community-Entry Home Health Made Up Nearly Half Of Home Health Episodes And Spending In Traditional Medicare, 2017-21. Health Affairs, 2026;45(1):84-91.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Mark Shepard, Mark Shepard, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts and National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Additional authors for this research include Ilana Salant, Nicole Maestas, Timothy J. Layton and David C. Grabowski.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)