Welcome
Approximately 1,800 home health and hospice agencies will be selected to
participate in an important national health care survey. During the fall of 2007, the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, will conduct the National Home and Hospice Care
Survey (NHHCS). The NHHCS is a nationally representative sample survey of home
health and hospice agencies, their current patients, discharges, and staff. Data
from the NHHCS have been used to:
track
changes in home health care use provided to individuals and families in
their place of residence since 1992
track
changes in end-of-life hospice care in both home and hospice settings
identify
changes in the use of hospice care services resulting from the availability
of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, which began in 1983 and Medicaid
reimbursement for hospice care in 1986
assess
the shortage of frontline caregivers (registered and licensed practical
nurses, home health aides, certified nurse aides, and other direct care
workers) in long-term care settings, including home health and hospice care,
and make recommendations to Congress to address the increasing demand of a
large aging generation.
As the population of
older adults is projected to double in the next 25 to 30 years, need for
home health aides also is projected to grow. In 2007, NCHS will conduct the
first national survey of home health aides providing much
needed information on this long-term care workforce. All of the home
health and hospice agencies selected to participate in the NHHCS will be
eligible for the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS). This supplemental
survey will include a nationally representative sample of home health aides
who work in home health and hospice agencies and provide patients with
assistance in activities of daily living (ADLs).