At-home Care’s Shift To Value-based Models Demands Smarter Marketing, Messaging

The home-based care industry is increasingly pursuing value-based reimbursement models, but that transition demands fresh marketing and communication strategies from providers.

While value-based care has the potential to improve outcomes and reduce costs, success depends on providers’ willingness to invest in education for the general public, payer partners and hospital systems, experts told Home Health Care News.

“The shift to value-based care makes public awareness of in-home care more important than ever,” Michael Vinson, senior director of marketing at LHC Group, told HHCN in an email. “When people don’t understand these benefits, they often wait until a crisis occurs, which runs counter to the proactive, coordinated model that value-based care promotes. Increasing awareness also helps clarify the differences between home health, personal care and hospice, so families can make informed choices sooner.”

Lafayette, Louisiana-based LHC Group provides in-home health care, hospice and home- and community-based services, among other offerings, in 37 states and Washington D.C. UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) health care services arm, Optum, acquired LHC Group for $5.4 billion in 2023. 

Value-based care is becoming increasingly critical for the home-based care industry. As managed Medicare continues to grow in dominance, home health and home care agencies must rethink their strategies, Guy Tommasi, president and CEO of Corcoran Consulting Group, told HHCN.

“As managed Medicare becomes a bigger piece, the home health [and] home care agencies have to step up their game and have a willingness to venture into this value-based care ecosystem, change their mindset, partner and collaborate, and begin to collect data on hospital readmissions, functional outcomes, and satisfaction. These are all the pillars of value-based care.”

Public awareness of in-home care is critical, Vinson said, because it allows people to engage with home-based care earlier, thereby improving health outcomes and lowering costs, key tenets of value-based care.

While general knowledge about in-home care has improved in recent years, more remains to be done. Members of the public often confuse home health, hospice and personal care, Vinson said.

“From a marketing perspective, that’s both a challenge and an opportunity,” he said. “Too often, families only learn about in-home care during a crisis, which makes proactive planning harder. We have a chance to create simple, relatable campaigns that explain the value and outcomes and really connect the dots between in-home care and better health results.”

Educating payers

The general public is not the only group that needs a better understanding of the home-based care industry. 

The transition to value-based care demands that payers deepen their understanding of home-based care, David Kerns, CEO of the LTM Group, told HHCN.

“For the longest time, Medicare has subsidized these managed care contracts, and a lot of agencies are saying no now,” he said. “They’re all saying that they’re value-based care payers and things like that. But then, when you put a proposal in from them, they don’t do it. And these are the same payers that own some of the largest home care agencies in the country, and they’re not even doing it with their own home care agencies.”

Headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, the LTM Group is a network of home health, hospice and home care agencies operating in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana – and now Florida. It provides care to about 25,000 patients annually and employs over 1,500 people.

For Tommasi, the most important parties to educate about the value of in-home care are payers.

Payers’ understanding of the importance of non-medical home care improved with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tommasi. Before the pandemic, payers saw home care as “a glorified babysitter,” he said.

“That’s because we didn’t really do a good job in educating,” Tommasi said. “So post COVID, we’ve really seen the elevation of home care as not so much a supportive partner, but a strategic partner. That’s a huge difference.”

Necessary change

Providers can take several steps to increase awareness of their services, helping usher in the era of value-based care. 

To communicate the importance of home-based care to payers and hospital systems, home-based care providers must identify key metrics that demonstrate in-home care’s ability to improve outcomes. 

In addition, advocacy work, in lockstep with other providers and organizations like the National Alliance for Care at Home and state associations, is crucial to improving awareness, according to Kerns.

To improve general awareness of home-based care, companies must first listen to patients and collaborate with clinicians to understand what works well, what could be improved upon and how to communicate the role of home-based care in overall health, Vinson said.

“Content marketing supports this by dispelling myths and offering trusted resources to families,” Vinson said. “Overall, we take a multi-channel approach, blending traditional outreach like community events and partnerships with digital strategies to reach targeted audiences and highlight the real value of in-home care.”

Local connections are also key to improving public awareness of in-home care. Because of the local nature of health care, providers that establish community partnerships will most effectively spread awareness, according to Tommasi.

While pathways exist to increase awareness of in-home care among both payer partners and the general public, home-based care stakeholders must proactively take steps down those pathways to improve the status quo of value-based care in the industry. 

“We’ve made progress, but there’s room to do more,” Vinson said. “Outreach needs to be proactive, with campaigns that normalize care conversations, clearly differentiate services and brands, and tap into what people really want to see.”

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