Medicare: Utilization of Home Health Care by State

This report discusses the variation in Medicare home health use across states. Using home health claims for the first 6 months of 2001 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, GAO compiled statistics on home health users, home health visits, home health episodes, and the percentage of home health users with multiple episodes for each state. A home health episode, the basis for Medicare payment under the prospective payment system, is up to a 60-day period of care during which any number of visits may be provided.