The Use of Medicare Home Health Care Services

Medicare expenditures for home health care are growing exponentially. Home health care reimbursements grew from $2 billion in 1988 to $12.7 billion in 1994 and now account for more than 8 percent of the total budget for Medicare. 1 This growth was predominantly the result of the 1988–1989 liberalization and standardization of coverage for home health care services, 2 which in turn fostered a substantial increase in the number of home health agencies certified by Medicare. Between 1989 and 1995, the number of such agencies increased by more than 50 percent (from 5676 to 8747), and the number of for-profit agencies more . . .