The Complexity of the Ever-Evolving Home Health Software Market
There is no doubt about it: home health is a complex market. And it is getting increasingly complex.
KLAS has been studying home health periodically since 2006 and regularly since 2014. Since then, the market has certainly evolved. We have seen the emergence of some massive home health agencies that span across multiple states.
Of course, with growth and acquisitions comes the need for robust home health software. After all, each state has different regulatory requirements and billing needs. And within the past several years, CMS regulations for the home health industry have certainly not ceased to evolve. So home health software vendors have had a lot to keep up with.
Bringing Clarity to the Market
In the midst of this ever-changing market, KLAS saw an opportunity for better clarity. We realized how important the size of a healthcare provider organization is in terms of the software decisions they make. So we set out to identify the best home health options for healthcare providers according to their size. Thus we created a report called Home Health EHR 2021: A Look at the Experience of Midsize to Large Home Health Agencies.
We gathered performance data from various users of eight home health EHRs, including products from Epic, Homecare Homebase, MatrixCare, MEDITECH, WellSky, and Netsmart. MEDITECH and MatrixCare’s systems tend to be on the smaller end of the spectrum. MEDITECH’s customers tend to be from very small home health agencies tied to a health system, whereas MatrixCare has a strong presence in small to midsize independent agencies. Netsmart’s customers range from small to large depending on one of several home health solutions Netsmart has acquired over the years. WellSky and Epic’s products are prevalent in small to large agencies and have gotten their foot in the door with some very large agencies. While found in agencies of all sizes, Homecare Homebase has the strongest presence in large and very large agencies and is virtually the only vendor being used today in extremely large home health agencies who work with more than 10,000 patients a day.
Here is a snapshot of what we have found. Check out our report for further insights.
A Glimpse into the Future
Judging from past and current trends, the market will continue to consolidate as home health agencies get larger and further diversify their service offerings beyond home health into hospice, private duty or homecare, and possibly other trends including Hospital at Home, SNF at Home, or other models. Agencies will ultimately want to use one system with robust functionality to meet the needs of all of their service lines and be interoperable across the healthcare continuum. Vendors who can keep their customers successful, stay ahead of evolving CMS and state regulations, and build out a robust health-at-home platform could potentially see expansion into larger home health agencies.
In our next report, we are planning to capitalize on further opportunities to bring clarity to the market by differentiating between vendors that support home health, homecare, and private duty services, including the nuanced functionality needs of scheduling and billing for private pay, Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursements. Keep an eye out for our future reports.