Modern Healthcare reporter Diane Eastabrook spoke to Innovive Health CEO Joseph McDonough for her article highlighting the growth of home healthcare agencies treating behavioral patients in their homes. Read an excerpt below.
As patient care increasingly moves into the home, some home health providers are adding services to tap into the $80 billion behavioral health sector.
Some companies are providing in-home treatment and support for mild anxiety and depression, while others are targeting more serious mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance abuse and autism.
The growth is driven by increased diagnoses of mental illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 1 in 5 adults has a behavioral health condition, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans have sought treatment for depression and anxiety. Telehealth has made access to behavioral healthcare more accessible.
Home health firms also are benefiting from a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirement that took effect in January requiring them to screen for depression and cognition deficits during patient assessments.
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Innovive Health is targeting low-income Medicaid patients with chronic health conditions. The company has been providing in-home care to patients with severe mental illness in Massachusetts for the past two decades and expanded to Colorado in April. Increased funding for Medicaid home- and community-based services through the American Rescue Plan Act prompted the Colorado expansion and could help the company expand to other states, said CEO Joseph McDonough.
Read the full article here: Behavioral health at home grows in popularity | Modern Healthcare