Agency characteristics and changes in home health quality after Home Health Compare.
OBJECTIVE
This study examines the association between home health agency characteristics and quality improvement in home health care after Home Health Compare (HHC), a public-reporting initiative in the Medicare program.


METHODS
We examined the changes in seven quality measures reported in HHC from 2003 to 2007. We used a linear regression model to examine whether quality changes over time differed by agency characteristics.


RESULTS
We found improvements in quality after HHC in the indicators that measure patients' ability to independently manage daily activities; however, the use of emergent care did not change, and hospitalization rates increased during the study period. Agencies with low quality at baseline, not-for-profit or hospital-based agencies, and agencies with longer Medicare tenure showed greater improvement for some quality measures than their counterparts.


CONCLUSIONS
There was large variation in the degree of quality improvement after HHC by quality indicators and by agency characteristics.
Jung
Kyoungrae
K
Department of Health Policy and Administration, Pennsylvania State University, 604 Ford Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA. kuj11@psu.edu
Shea
Dennis
D
Warner
Candy
C
D018574:Home Care Agencies / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014481:United States