Home Care Market Overview

Home care has been provided in the US since the 1880s and currently over 7.6 million people receive care from 83,000 home care providers. Medicare's enactment in 1965 accelerated growth in home care agencies. By the end of 2001, the number of Medicare-certified home health agencies declined to 6,861 due to changes in Medicare home health coverage and reimbursement. However, the number of agencies rebounded to 9,284 by the end of 2007 with the introduction of the home health prospective payment system in 2000. Total national health expenditures were projected to be $2.2 trillion in 2007, with home care expenditures estimated at $47.5 billion in 2005.