Association of the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model With Quality, Utilization, and Medicare Payments After the First 5 Years

IMPORTANCE: The original Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) model provided financial incentives to home health agencies for quality improvement in 9 randomly selected US states. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate quality, utilization, and Medicare payments for home health patients in HHVBP states compared with those in comparison states. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cohort study was conducted in 2021 with secondary data from January 2013 to December 2020. A difference-in-differences design and multivariate linear regression were used to compare outcomes for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries who received home health care in HHVBP states with those in 41 comparison states during 3 years of preintervention (2013-2015) and the subsequent 5 years (2016-2020). EXPOSURES: Home health care provided by a home health agency in HHVBP states and comparison states. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Utilization (unplanned hospitalizations, emergency department visits, skilled nursing facility [SNF] visits) for Medicare beneficiaries within 60 days of beginning home health, Medicare payments during and 37 days after home health episodes, and quality of care (functional status, patient experience) during home health episodes. RESULTS: Among 34 058 796 home health episodes (16 584 870 beneficiaries; mean [SD] age of 76.6 [11.7] years; 60.5% female; 11.2% Black non-Hispanic; 79.5% White non-Hispanic) from January 2016 to December 2020, 22.6% were in HHVBP states and 77.4% were in non-HHVBP states. For the HHVBP and non-HHVBP groups, 60.4% and 61.0% of episodes were provided to female patients; 10.0% and 13.6% were provided to Black non-Hispanic patients, and 82.4% and 75.2% were provided to White non-Hispanic patients, respectively. Unplanned hospitalizations decreased by 0.15 percentage points (95% CI, –0.30 to –0.01) more in HHVBP states, a 1.0% decline compared with 15.7% at baseline. The use of SNFs decreased by 0.34 percentage points (95% CI, –0.40 to –0.27) more in HHVBP states, a 6.9% decline compared with the 4.9% baseline average. There was an association between HHVBP and a reduction in average Medicare payments per day of $2.17 (95% CI, –$3.67 to –$0.68) in HHVBP states, primarily associated with reduced inpatient and SNF services, which corresponded to an average annual Medicare savings of $190 million. There was greater functional improvement in HHVBP states than comparison states and no statistically significant change in emergency department use or most measures of patient experience. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cohort study, the HHVBP model was associated with lower Medicare payments that were associated with lower utilization of inpatient and SNF services, with better or similar quality of care.