Pilot program aims to improve home care

The pilot program, called "The Intervention in Home Care to Improve Outcomes," will rely on randomized interventions to evaluate their success in reducing hospitalizations, improving health outcomes and reducing Medicare spending. By remotely monitoring and evaluating physical and cognitive changes, care managers can take appropriate action before the condition escalates.

"To date, almost no one has looked on a large-scale basis at how the private-pay home care population utilizes health care," said David Grabowski, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, in a press release. "In this program, we will have access to a large population of private-paying home care recipients via our partnership with Right at Home. We will also have the ability to identify detailed changes in care-recipient condition and hospitalizations over time via our partnership with ClearCare.

"Through these partnerships, for the first time ever, we will be able to determine whether home care technology coupled with a simple intervention strategy can reduce hospitalizations, improve overall health and reduce costs," he added.