An All-Virtual, At-Home Acute Care Program Reduced Participant Costs For Uninsured & Medicaid Beneficiaries

An all-virtual, at-home acute care program (“Safer@Home”) reduced participant costs for uninsured participants and Medicaid beneficiaries, according to a recent study. The researchers concluded that existing insurer payment structures for hospital care create financial barriers to developing and deploying innovative acute home-based care programs, and that a straightforward payment framework could generate cost reductions for both health care facilities and insurers. 

The researchers analyzed costs associated with the Safer@Home program at a large, academic, public, level I trauma hospital near downtown Los Angeles, California, between September 2022 and August 2023. During this period, 876 people . . .