Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
We LOVE this idea! A great way to serve the community, especially with local animal shelters in many communities reporting they are over capacity!
————–
OKC Animal Welfare, OKCFD partner to reunite lost pets
Oklahoma City fire stations 25 and 30 are now equipped to scan stray animals for microchips, aiming to reunite lost pets with their owners and reduce shelter intake.
Oklahoma City Animal Welfare is partnering with the Oklahoma City Fire Department to make it easier for families to reunite with their lost pets without the pet ever entering the shelter. Beginning in November, two Oklahoma City fire stations will be equipped with microchip scanners, providing the community with more flexible options to help a found pet return home.
Residents who find a stray pet can take it to one of the participating stations, where firefighters will scan the animal for a microchip. If a chip is found, the finder will receive the microchip number and instructions on how to look up the owner’s information, allowing them to quickly and directly reconnect the pet with its family.
Participating Fire Stations:
Station 25: 2701 SW 59th St.
Station 30: 4343 S. Lake Hefner Dr.
“It’s always better for a lost pet to go directly back home rather than spend time in the shelter,” said Ronnie Schlabs, Superintendent of the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare. “By working with the Fire Department, we’re making it easier for neighbors to help neighbors and giving families more opportunities to be reunited quickly. This partnership saves time, reduces stress on the animals, and ultimately saves lives. We are grateful to the Oklahoma City Fire Department for their support and commitment in helping make this program possible.”
The program provides a convenient alternative to shelter intake and extends microchip scanning hours beyond the traditional operating times of veterinary clinics and the OKC Animal Shelter. This not only speeds up the process of reuniting pets with their owners but also helps reduce overcrowding at the shelter, conserve city resources and limit the stress that animals experience when separated from their families.
Pets cannot be left at the fire stations, as they are not equipped to house or care for animals. If a finder is unable to hold onto the pet or needs further assistance, they may contact OKC Animal Welfare dispatch at (405) 297-2255.
EMS Community Care Mobile: An initiative that invests in new telehealth technology for high-risk transport of moms and their new babies to higher levels of care throughout the state and a mobile integrated healthcare program that brings prenatal, postpartum, post-surgery discharge, chronic disease management, and other types of care to rural residents in their homes or to easily accessible sites in their communities.
Description: Iowa will implement a robust strategy to transform prehospital care through three coordinated sub-initiatives: (1) EMS System Development and Sustainability Assessment, (2) Mobile Integrated Health Care, and (3) High-risk OB and Neonatal Transport Project. Together, these efforts will strengthen the EMS workforce, integrate telehealth and home-based care, and reduce unnecessary ED visits and hospital transports.
In 2024, over 320,000 Iowans interacted with the EMS system, with approximately 35% residing in rural areas. These initiatives will structurally transform rural health care delivery with a large projected impact on rural. This initiative primarily addresses EMS (C.2), remote care services (F.1), and improvements to population health clinical infrastructure (B.1), while also containing components of data infrastructure improvements (F.2), data collection for dually eligible individuals (E.2), rural provider strategic partnerships (C.1), and talent recruitment (D.1).
Iowa will conduct a statewide EMS system assessment to inform the development of a district-based hub-and-spoke model for prehospital care. The assessment, beginning early in the first budget year to maximize the immediate impact of this work, will include coverage mapping, call volume analysis, workforce distribution, and financial modeling. Predictive analytics and scenario testing will identify opportunities to optimize deployment, improve coordination, and ensure each district can support efficient operations. While implementation of the hub-and-spoke EMS model is outside the scope of this funding, the assessment will guide future system design, workforce strategies, payer engagement (including Medicaid and MCO reimbursement), and technology investments.
The assessment will be paired with data infrastructure system upgrades, quality improvement dashboards, and annual evaluations.
A reassessment in Year 4 will measure progress toward sustainability and system efficiency goals.
Iowa will also establish Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) demonstration projects to deliver care
directly to rural Iowans through home visits and community-based services. This community-based care initiative will outfit ambulances and existing vehicles with the technology needed for telehealth and direct care provision (remote care services, F.1), particularly in chronic disease prevention and management. MIH teams will provide post-discharge follow-up, chronic disease and cancer management, acute care, and preventive services.
The services provided use expanded scopes of practice for EMS clinicians to improve the population health clinical infrastructure (B.1) in rural Iowa by focusing on technological innovation, primary care, and
chronic disease prevention and management. MIH is an evidence-based strategy to reduce ED utilization and hospital readmissions by addressing health concerns before they escalate [70].
Services provided will be entered within the Iowa HIE (data infrastructure, F.2).
At least one MIH project will serve a three-county rural area, fostering regional collaboration and rural provider strategic partnerships (C.1). Services will include treatment-in-place, resource navigation, and chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes, COPD, and heart failure. MIH teams will also integrate prenatal and postpartum care, using telehealth to close maternal health gaps in rural areas. These services are supported by strong evidence and have been shown to reduce costs and improve outcomes [71], though they are not currently reimbursable in Iowa. Data from these projects will support efforts to establish treat-in-place services as a reimbursable benefit (remote care, F.1).
Iowa will use this opportunity to further advance the goals of the Rural Health Transformation Program by collecting data on individuals receiving services from MIH units to determine how many beneficiaries are dually eligible (E.2). This data, following analysis by Iowa’s Health Economist, will help Iowa develop future strategies to improve care for this population. This project also supports a path for non-physician health care in rural areas and provides enhanced training for EMS clinicians (talent recruitment, D.1).
Iowa will fund demonstration projects to enhance maternal and neonatal transport capacity.
Existing ambulances and helicopters will be upgraded with OB-specific equipment, monitoring devices, and telehealth connectivity (remote care, F.1) to enable specialist-guided care during transport. EMS clinicians will receive advanced training (talent recruitment, D.1), including high-fidelity simulation, to manage complex deliveries and neonatal emergencies. This intervention, often referred to as tele-transport, has been shown through early trials to improve outcomes for critical neonatal cases [72].
These transport projects will integrate with the Hometown Connections network as part of rural provider strategic partnerships (C.1), ensuring timely access to perinatal hubs while preserving continuity of care by returning patients to local facilities when appropriate. This approach maximizes existing EMS assets, avoids the cost of new fleet purchases, and supports a scalable, cost-effective system for improving maternal and neonatal outcomes. Main Strategic Goals of the EMS Community Care Mobile:
Innovative care: High-risk OB and Neonatal Transport involve coordinated care and flexible care arrangements. High-risk OB and Neonatal Transport and Mobile Integrated Health projects make EMS providers a larger part of the care team and allow them to practice at the top of their licenses.
Make rural America healthy again: Support rural health innovations through new care access points with mobile integrated health care units serving patients in their homes or at other community sites. Implement evidence-based, outcomes-driven interventions to improve chronic disease prevention and management through MIH units.
Sustainable access: Help rural hospital OB units remain operational by providing access to High-Risk OB and Neonatal transport when needed. Offer tele-health through Mobile Integrated Health units within High-risk OB and Neonatal transport vehicles.
Workforce Development: Expand training for EMS clinicians, creating career pathways and improving retention.
Stakeholder Engagement: As described above, the RHTP core planning team and external engagement sessions also contributed toward this initiative and will continue to meet quarterly throughout the duration of this funding opportunity. Iowa is well-equipped to deploy RHTP with rural stakeholders through an existing network of contractors and local EMS providers.
Metrics and Evaluation Plan: The EMS initiative is designed to modernize and expand emergency medical services in rural areas through a combination of internal capacity-building, demonstration program deployment, and expanded service delivery. The selected performance metrics reflect this phased approach, beginning with foundational administrative and planning activities and progressing toward infrastructure readiness and measurable service impact. Early in the program, the time required to hire internal EMS staff and release RFPs for sub-projects will be tracked to demonstrate administrative readiness and the ability to launch key components of the initiative. As demonstration programs are awarded and implemented, the percentage of EMS programs that are fully equipped and staffed will be monitored, capturing progress in vehicle procurement, equipment installation, and workforce deployment. Once operational, the initiative will report the number of community visits and non-emergency transports conducted per month (at the county level), reflecting the volume and reach of expanded EMS services. To ensure equitable access, the geographic distribution of EMS services will also be tracked (at the county level) relative to rural population coverage, helping to demonstrate alignment with the initiative’s access for rural residents. These metrics are selected for their feasibility, alignment with the initiative’s objectives, and ability to show both early implementation progress and long term service delivery outcomes. The Milestones are given in the implementation section above.
Sustainability Plan: Iowa’s sustainability plan ensures that the investments made in the EMS
Community Care Mobile create a long-lasting, self-sustaining prehospital care system for the State. Investments in telehealth equipment and project-specific upgrades to existing emergency transport vehicles are one-time costs.
The Iowa EMS Program will work collaboratively with Iowa Medicaid to add Mobile Integrated Health treat-in-place services as reimbursable benefits. Iowa HHS will also partner with birthing hospitals, health systems, and insurers to co-fund OB capable transport teams as part of maternal health quality initiatives. Costs can be integrated into regional perinatal quality collaboratives to share expense burdens. Iowa will implement a robust evaluation component to explore improvements in population-level health and rural health outcomes throughout the grant award period and demonstrate cost savings from this initiative.
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
‘Tip of the Hat’ to Chief Jason Stroud and the team at Virginia Beach EMS on implementing an evidence-based process change for EMS responses, limiting the use of lights and siren (HOT) responses to only potentially time-sensitive EMS calls.
In 2022, 50 EMS agencies partnered with the National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA) on the Lights and Siren Collaborative bringing together a 50 EMS organizations, subject-matter experts, and EMS agencies from across the US to prevent ambulance crashes by reducing the use of lights and siren (L&S) while driving.
After the recent news update about Wake County, NC EMS implementing similar changes, Brian Maloney, the Operations Director for Plum EMS in Pennsylvania, shared that for the first three quarters of this calendar year, their average the use of lights/siren responding to calls is 3.4% of the time and 2.9% during transport to the hospital, without compromising patient care!
Virginia Beach EMS will limit use of lights, sirens on responses outside of Priority 1 classification
About 25% of incidents fall under the Priority 1 designation, officials said, meaning 75% of incidents would no longer require lights or sirens.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — This week, an operational change went into effect for Virginia Beach EMS in which first responders will limit the utilization of lights and sirens for calls under their Priority 2 designation.
The change, confirmed by Chief Jason Stroud, is amid a nationwide shift by localities to rethink whether those signals should be deployed for every single instance that requires an EMS response.
“If we’re looking at a five-mile response, the use of red lights and sirens, at most, saves us two minutes according to our driving policy. So we know for 93% of our patient population, there is no impact to patient outcome,” he told 13News Now.
According to Stroud, other localities have made similar changes, including Wake County in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.
Stroud emphasized that lights and sirens will still be utilized for critical responses and high-priority calls, or incidents designated by dispatch under Priority 1 classification.
“Breathing difficulty, reports of someone unresponsive, someone actively having a seizure or traumatic accident. Those types of things get scored at a higher acuity level, they are a Priority 1, and we’ll still use red lights or sirens for those calls,” he says.
However, over a twelve-month sample size spanning from October 1, 2024 to October 1, 2025, 25% of 911 calls were designated under Priority 1. All calls dispatched outside of that will be subject to the operational change.
“What we do know nationally is that ambulances responding with lights and sirens are twice as likely to be involved in a crash. Lights and sirens-related ambulance crashes, the injury rate is ten times higher. So over the last couple of years, as data became collected and readily available, this conversation and consensus is, the increased risk isn’t necessary for the majority of our patients or outcomes,” he said.
The results are striking: 85% of enrolled patients avoided hospital or ER admissions within 30 days, and over 71% did not require EMS or 911 services even after program completion.
This is the type of data-driven information payers are looking for to help make value decisions to reimburse EMS agencies for MIH/CP services.
It is worth noting that the report shares data not only on acute care and inpatient utilization, but also outcomes for patient experience!
Lake County MIH Program Achieves 85% Reduction in ER Visits During First Year
The Northern Lake County Mobile Integrated Healthcare (NLCMIH) – Community Paramedicine program, initially launched in Wauconda, Illinois, has completed its first full year, and the results are compelling. Designed to support patients with complex health needs such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, COPD, and frequent falls, the program has already demonstrated substantial improvements in patient outcomes and system-wide efficiency.
Thanks to this ability to embed standardized data collection within a flexible framework, HealthCall’s recent state-level partnerships have empowered participating MIH-CP agencies with tools for better care delivery, reimbursement, and data-driven decision-making, allowing them to quickly and sustainably scale their operational frameworks.
A Focus on High Utilizers Leads to Major Impact From August 2024 to August 2025, the program received 166 referrals, ultimately enrolling 53 patients. These individuals were primarily “high utilizers”—patients who frequently accessed 911 and emergency services. By providing proactive, scheduled in-home visits and addressing both medical conditions and non-medical social needs (like food insecurity, transportation, and housing challenges), the program helped reduce unnecessary emergency department visits.
The results are striking: 85% of enrolled patients avoided hospital or ER admissions within 30 days, and over 71% did not require EMS or 911 services even after program completion. This success not only improves the quality of life for patients but also frees up emergency departments for those in immediate need.
Financial Savings and System Efficiency The Wauconda Fire Protection District and its partners have realized substantial savings. An ambulance transport costs, on average, $2,465 in gross charges, but reimbursement averages just $900—leaving a deficit of over $1,500 per call. By comparison, the MIH model costs around $202 per patient visit, making it a far more efficient and sustainable approach.
In practical terms, this means fewer costly ambulance rides and ER visits, and more targeted, appropriate care delivered where it is needed most.
Patient Satisfaction at Its Highest Early feedback shows the program is not only effective but also deeply valued. In patient surveys conducted in 2025, every respondent reported being “very satisfied” with the care received, particularly highlighting the quality of care, social service assistance, and reduction in 911 use.
Looking Ahead: New Legislation Expands Opportunities Perhaps most exciting is the upcoming Illinois Public Act 103-1024, which takes effect on January 1, 2026. This groundbreaking legislation will require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover Mobile Integrated Healthcare services.
Key provisions include:
Coverage for patients who have visited the ER three or more times in four months, or those identified by providers as likely to benefit from MIH.
Recognition of MIH services, such as chronic disease monitoring, hospital discharge follow-ups, medication compliance support, vaccinations, and more.
Standardization of reimbursement, ensuring long-term financial sustainability for programs across Illinois.
For communities like Wauconda, this means expanded access to MIH, more stable funding, and the ability to scale services to reach even more patients in need.
A Model for Community Health In its first year, NLCMIH has proven that community paramedicine works. By focusing on proactive, patient-centered care, the program reduces costs, improves outcomes, and strengthens the healthcare system as a whole. With the backing of Illinois’ new legislation, programs like Wauconda’s will continue to grow—delivering smarter, more compassionate care where it matters most.
The Vision and Leadership Behind the Program The success of the Northern Lake County MIH–Community Paramedicine program would not have been possible without the dedication and vision of its champion, Lieutenant Erik Christensen of the Wauconda Fire Protection District.
As one of the program’s earliest advocates, he played a pivotal role in launching MIH, building the program’s foundation, and assembling the team that now delivers this innovative model of care. Beyond Wauconda, he has worked tirelessly to promote the value of MIH to other departments in Illinois, helping to broaden its reach and impact.
Known for his humility and patient-first mindset, Lt. Christensen brings both professional expertise and personal passion to the role.
“EMS and pre-hospital care have always been a passion of mine, and the Wauconda Fire Protection District is always looking for ways to expand community service and outreach. Mobile Integrated Healthcare – Community Paramedicine was a natural fit for our mission and values, and we are excited to have been a part of the creation of this regional program. Wauconda Fire Protection District and its regional partners are what make this program so strong, and our partnerships are invaluable.”
Lieutenant Christensen has been with the department for 13 years, including eight years as Medical Officer. His leadership continues to drive the program forward, ensuring it not only delivers measurable outcomes but also embodies the compassionate, community-centered care at the heart of MIH.
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
Another well-respected EMS system flipping of the RLS switch for most EMS responses. This is a growing national trend, using evidence-based research to tailor responses based on medical director approved, quality assured and scientifically driven emergency medical dispatch (EMD) processes.
The latter of which has a list of potential EMS system performance measure beyond response times.
These Joint Position Statements used a litany of published peer reviewed studies on topics such as correlation of patient outcomes based on response time and number of paramedics in and EMS system.
A summary of those research studies can be downloadedhere.
The Academy of International Mobile Healthcare Integration hosted a webinar on this topic in July 2021 and you can view a recording of the webinar and download the handouthere.
—————————-
Wake County ambulances to silence sirens, turn off lights for most 911 calls
Wake County EMS is set to transform its emergency response by reducing the use of sirens and lights for most 911 calls, prioritizing safety and reducing accidents. The change aims to curb confusion on roads and improve safety.
Emergencies in Wake County are about to look and sound different. Wake EMS announced Monday that ambulances will silence sirens and turn off emergency lights for the majority of 911 calls.
Ambulances would still use lights and sirens for the most serious calls, including shootings, stabbings, and car crashes.
EMS leaders say the reason is safety. The lights and sirens can confuse drivers on the roads who don’t know what to do, and can lead to more crashes.
“Red lights and sirens use is one of the most dangerous things we do as emergency responders,” Wake EMS director Jon Studnek told the Wake County Board of Commissioners during their regular meeting on Monday. “We know that EMTs, firefighters, paramedics, and police officers have a five time increase in being involved in a fatal motor vehicle collision when compared to the general public.”
According to data from Wake EMS, ambulances with lights and sirens on have been involved in 21 crashes in Wake County this year alone, resulting in the loss of two ambulances. No one was seriously injured in those crashes.
The plan will require a top-to-bottom overhaul of how Wake EMS responds to emergencies. Studnek said he has already been coordinating with other emergency departments and will begin training Wake, Raleigh, and Cary dispatchers on the new system soon. The new light and siren plan itself will be rolled out in phases, starting in December and ending in March.
Wake County is far from the first county to consider this change. Studnek pointed to dozens of other municipalities around the country, including Charlotte, where he said red light and siren crashes have dropped 33%.
“Out of a hundred calls, only 10 to 15 times does a patient need immediate, life-saving intervention,” Studnek said. “Red lights and sirens should be thought of as a clinical intervention that we use on those patients that we suspect of having need for a time-critical intervention.”
The change will mean slower response times to some 911 calls. Studnek noted that using lights and sirens does save, on average, two to three minutes per response.
“We should reserve those red lights and sirens for when we think that 2-3 minute savings will have a clinical impact,” Studnek said.
During the presentation, that change worried County Commissioner Shinica Thomas, who asked what this could do to Wake EMS’s average response times.
Studnek did not have an immediate answer, but promised to reach out to other departments and check.
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
Special thanks to EMS1 for sharing this information as the RHTP grant deadline approaches. ———– 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐇𝐓𝐏 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 How EMS agencies can work with states to obtain Rural Health Transformation Program funding October 15, 2025
Rural America faces a growing health access crisis. Declining hospital resources, limited behavioral health services and workforce shortages are placing tremendous strain on already fragile rural health systems. At the same time, EMS remains a trusted and reliable point of access for millions of rural residents — often serving as the front door to care when no other options exist.
But rural EMS agencies are in a crisis of their own, due largely to funding, staffing and geography. Grant opportunities available through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) may perfectly align state and rural EMS agency goals.
RHTP grant guidance from CMS includes several references to EMS and community paramedicine, and a recently published commentary from the National Governors Association also suggests states consider including EMS in their grant applications.
EMS leaders should use these references as a springboard to ensure they are communicating with their state agencies who are developing grant applications.
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
It’s encouraging to see more communities transforming their EMS delivery systems using evidence-based research.
While the concept of triaging 911 EMS requests based on effective emergency medical dispatch (EMD) processes, with appropriate medical oversight and quality assurance, using evidence-based protocols is not new, it’s encouraging to see more agencies beginning to use these tools to send the right resource, to the right patient, in the right time – keeping ALS resources available for high acuity calls.
Programs like these also help enhance clinical performance for ALS and BLS clinicians, improve operational effectiveness, and help make EMS systems more financially sustainable!
———————–
Sterling Heights launches first-of-its-kind EMS program to improve emergency response times
The Peak Demand program uses a color-coded priority system to ensure appropriate resources respond to 911 calls, taking pressure off paramedics for critical emergencies
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Sterling Heights Fire Department has launched a new technology-driven emergency response program designed to save lives by ensuring the right resources reach emergencies faster.
The EMS Peak Demand program is the first of its kind in metro Detroit and comes in response to a sharp increase in 911 calls throughout the area.
The new system has already shown promising results since launching eight days ago.
“This program has been up and running for 8 days. They took about 39 calls in those 8 days, and that equates to 8 percent of the call volume,” said Kevin Edmond, Sterling Heights Fire Department chief.
The EMS Peak Demand units are staffed with four newly hired EMT firefighters and are designed to take pressure off Sterling Heights Advanced Life Support units.
“By sending these people out on the low basic calls, we keep our paramedics available for the heart attacks, strokes, trauma, and breathing difficulties,” Edmond said.
The system determines which EMS unit responds based on information provided to dispatchers, with the goal of alleviating strain on critical resources.
“It’s helping our call takers determine what response unit to deploy to that call,” said Angela Elsey, Macomb County dispatch director.
Dispatchers assess calls through a color-coded priority scale using red, blue, yellow, and green classifications. Red and blue calls are reserved for the most critical emergencies and Advanced Life Support units, while yellow and green calls are handled by Peak Demand EMS units.
Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel called the new program a game-changer.
“It cuts down in deficiency and the unnecessary nature of some vehicles going that don’t need to be there by making sure it’s the right vehicle that’s going,” Hackel said.
Sterling Heights resident Bashar Metti supports the new program and believes it will benefit the entire community.
“Our peak across the West Midlands area every day is 400 ambulances, the demand will always be high.”
Jamie Breen, a West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) paramedic who has been in the role for six years, has told how the introduction of a Clinical Validation Team (CVT) in 2021 has been a “game-changer for the service”.
The team calls patients back and where possible speaks to them to determine next steps, which could be advice, referral to a GP, pharmacist, hospital or urgent care team, or sending an ambulance.
Mr. Breen was giving BBC Shropshire an inside view of the pressures, challenges and highlights faced by ambulance crews.
He explained how the CVT worked to “see if they can triage them over the phone, so they don’t have to resource it with an ambulance”.
“Patients are getting the right care -and they’re getting referred on to specialist services such as specific wards, their GP or district nurses or things like rapid response,” he said.
Rob Till, head of integrated urgent care services at WMAS, said the triage service meant life-threatening cases were prioritised and responded to as quickly as possible.”
“At the same time, patients whose conditions are less urgent are safely referred to alternative services better suited to their needs,” he said.
WMAS receives about 4,000 emergency 999 calls a day and serves a population of about six million people.
The ambulance trust said it clinically triaged 723 patients each day through the CVT last month. ———————- From the CVT Website: “Not all calls require an ambulance; some 999 calls can be dealt with by our Clinical Validation Team (CVT) in our Emergency Operations Centre, who can discuss the patient’s condition further.
CVT is a team of paramedics and nurses specially trained to help patients who have called 999 needing medical help.
Around a quarter of all 999 calls we receive go to CVT.
Out of those, 60% of patients do not require an ambulance.
Instead CVT is able to find alternative care pathways, ensuring patients are given the right help, at the right time and in the right place.”
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
This recent article (excerpted below for length) explains that the Hospital At Home model is an innovation that seems to be demonstrating value for America’s healthcare system.
Under the CMS waiver that expanded this model, Mobile Healthcare Paramedics are approved members of the healthcare team supporting this model.
Some EMS systems have partnered with local hospitals to be part of this model, but the CMS waiver that enables the intervention is due to expire on September 30, 2025.
EMS advocacy groups should include the continuation of this waiver as part of their legislative educational efforts, along with the waivers that enable telehealth services available that some EMS systems are using to provide patient-centered patient navigation.
How Health Systems Are Turning Living Rooms Into Hospital Rooms By Alexis Kayser, Healthcare Editor Sep 10, 2025
How Do Hospital at Home Programs Work? Demand for hospital beds skyrocketed during the pandemic. To alleviate some of the pressure on inpatient wards and emergency departments, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative in November 2020. The new rule permitted certain Medicare-certified hospitals to provide inpatient-level care in patients’ homes.
While this wasn’t the first test run for hospital at home—the model is popular around the world and had been piloted in the U.S. for specific disease cases—the legislation sparked unprecedented interest. People over the age of 65 represent a large portion of hospitalized patients, so it was tough for health systems to justify this kind of treatment without a reimbursement route for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors.
By July 2025, 400 hospitals across 39 states were participating in the AHCAH program. Many of them use a combination of remote patient monitoring technology, in-home nursing and rehabilitation visits and virtual doctors’ appointments to provide hospital-level care in the comfort of patients’ own homes. Often, the remote monitoring devices can be operated with the click of a button and automatically send readings to hospitals’ data dashboards—reducing pressure on the less technologically savvy. Patients with respiratory, circulatory, renal and infectious diseases are common candidates for this type of care.
The success is not just anecdotal. Medicare beneficiaries who received care under the AHCAH initiative had lower mortality rates, according to a September 2024 CMS report. And a June 2024 research analysis published in the journal BMC Medicine found a 25 percent reduction in mortality rates for patients who had been discharged early from an inpatient hospital stay into a hospital at home program.
In the 30 days after a patient was discharged from the hospital, Medicare spending was significantly lower in the hospital at home group than in the traditional hospital group as well.
Hospital CEOs are worried about a “triple threat” to their budgets, DiLullo said: People need more health care services than ever, and need them for longer as life expectancies go up, yet the industry doesn’t have enough staff to meet demand. As health care costs rise at a quicker pace than inflation, industry leaders are feeling the pressure to make care more affordable without sacrificing quality. He believes that virtual and hospital at home programs could be a solution.
What are the Challenges Facing Hospital at Home Programs? OSF Healthcare has generally seen “incredibly high” satisfaction scores for hospital at home, according to Moots. But the model is far from perfect. Caregivers lose the solace and privacy that once marked their space. Oftentimes, they’re also tasked with providing medical care, making sure equipment is up to date, medications are filled and nurses show up to their shifts.
But that momentum is tempered by the uncertain policy environment. When CMS launched the AHCAH initiative in 2020, they did not promise that it would be permanent. The program has been extended by Congress three times, most recently in 2025 for six months. The current waivers are set to expire on September 30, 2025—which would end hospitals’ ability to provide care in the home.
Health systems and House representatives—from both parties—have been working to keep hospital at home programs alive. The Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, which would extend the AHCAH program through 2030, was introduced in the House in July. Backed by professional organizations like the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, the legislation also calls for a formal evaluation to compare home-based to traditional hospital care, and help CMS set standards.
On September 3, a group of 140 health care stakeholders—including health systems, digital care companies and advocacy organizations—wrote a letter to Congress, urging them to include the waiver extension in the September government funding package. If the legislation passes, it would benefit systems like OSF HealthCare that have spent much of the past five years in a waiting game.
“Our CMS waiver has been unevenly renewed, and that’s been a real struggle,” Moots said. “If you’re living six months to six months in a program that requires a lot of capital investment, that’s really tough to do.” A longer extension would also incentivize more hospitals to invest. Many have been holding off because they’re unsure of the AHCAH’s future, according to the American Hospital Association.
“We always have to make sure that Medicare extends the [AHCAH waiver],” Banos said when asked about the greatest challenges facing hospital at home programs. “We want to focus permanently on Medicare.”
Written by Matt Zavadsky on . Posted in Uncategorized.
Readmission prevention continues to be a valuable offering by EMS-Based MIH programs. This recent news may spur even more interest, especially considering the likelihood of additional financial pressures on hospitals in the near future.
We will provide an update once the CMS data is officially published. CMS offers a site where you can view/compare hospital readmission percentages (as well as other quality metrics) at their ‘Care Compare’ site here.
Upon accessing the site, find the hospital that interests you, click on ‘Unplanned Hospital Visits’ to see the hospital’s readmission rate.
More hospitals to face high readmission penalties in fiscal 2026 By Diane Eastabrook September 22, 2025
The number of hospitals faced with readmissions penalties of at least 1% come Oct. 1 is set to rise to the highest number since fiscal 2022.
Prior to fiscal 2026, the number of hospitals facing readmissions penalties of 1% or more had dropped for five consecutive years. But preliminary data released Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed the number of hospitals set to pay penalties of 1% or more under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program will increase to 8.1%, or 240 hospitals, in fiscal 2026 compared to 7%, or 208 hospitals, in fiscal 2025.
However, the number of hospitals facing no readmissions penalties next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, remained relatively flat compared to fiscal 2025, rising to 21.8%, or 641, from 21.4%, or 638.
For the upcoming year, 70.1% of hospitals will be charged penalties of less than 1%, compared to 71.6% in fiscal 2025.
The average fiscal 2026 readmission penalty for hospitals with the highest proportion of Medicare-Medicaid dual-eligible patients is 0.33%. For hospitals with the lowest number of dual-eligible patients, the average penalty is 0.35%.
During fiscal 2025, those two groups had penalties of 0.31% and 0.32% respectively.
CMS will release the final data Oct. 1.
The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program is a Medicare value-based purchasing program that began over a decade ago to encourage hospitals to better communicate and coordinate care with patients and caregivers to avoid hospital readmissions. Penalties reduce fee-for-service Medicare payments CMS makes to hospitals.
The hospital readmissions performance period for fiscal 2026 pulls in claims from July 2021 through June 2024. The report is based on a rolling three-year time period. The most recent period included data generated during the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Akin Demehin, senior director for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, said the increase in the number of hospitals receiving higher penalties could be partly attributed to CMS reinstating data on pneumonia patients, which it excluded from the previous period because the illness overlapped with COVID-19. “That could potentially be part of the explanation of why there was some change. I think what we are seeing is some of the normal year to year fluctuations,” he said.
However, he also warned hospitals could soon start seeing rising penalties as CMS begins looking at Medicare Advantage enrollees, as well as those in traditional Medicare, when considering hospitals’ performance in fiscal 2027, Demehin said.
Demehin estimates between 75% and 82% of hospitals will see some penalties in fiscal 2027, with an average penalty of .44%.
The inclusion of Medicare Advantage patients in future performance calculations is a concern for hospitals, because prior authorizations used by private insurers can result in delayed or denied post-acute care, Demehin said.
“We know that timely access to post-acute care can be a key determinant in how patient recovers and, therefore, the likelihood of readmission,” he said. “We do worry about how that will show up in readmissions for hospitals so we are going to be watching that very closely.”
