title: Medicare Home Health Initiative: current activities and future directions.
abstract: This article describes the Medicare home health benefit and summarizes the growth and change in the use of the benefit and in the industry providing home health care. The article details the progress the Home Health Initiative has achieved in the key areas of quality assurance, administration and operations, and policy. It concludes with a discussion of future directions for reforming Medicare's home health benefit.
authors.affiliation: Health Care Financing Administration, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mauser
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002204:Capitation Fee; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D018166:Health Care Reform; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016345:Medicare Part B / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011445:Prospective Payment System; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014481:United States