What We Learned From The Acute Hospital Care At Home Waiver—And What We Still Don’t Know

Health Affairs June 27, 2022
Bruce Leff, Arnold Milstein

In November 2020, in response to COVID-19 pandemic-related hospital capacity concerns, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) promulgated the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver (the waiver).

The waiver provides a hospital diagnosis-related group payment for the duration of the public health emergency to hospitals that provide Hospital at Home (HaH) care.

HaH provides hospital-level care in patients’ home as a substitute for care traditionally provided in acute care hospitals. Since the 1970s, it has been studied in scores of clinical trials in health systems around the world and has been the subject of multiple meta-analyses and systematic reviews.

Such studies have produced a robust evidence base demonstrating that HaH provides high-quality, safe, equitable, and effective care. Compared...

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