Medicare’s Independence At Home Demonstration Likely Reduced Health Care Spending In Pandemic Year 2020

During 2020, the first year of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Medicare Independence at Home (IAH) demonstration led to a 10.7% decrease in total Medicare spending per beneficiary at the participating primary care practices, equaling $459 per beneficiary per month. The purpose of the IAH demonstration is to test a payment incentive and service delivery model for providing home-based primary care to chronically ill and functionally limited Medicare beneficiaries.
Effects on spending in 2020 were seen most among the two-thirds of beneficiaries who required assistance from another person with most or all of their activities of . . .