Home Health Care Services Industry Profile

Companies in this industry provide a range of skilled nursing and other health care services, as well as personal care services, to patients in their homes. Major companies include AMEDYSIS, Apria Healthcare Group, Gentiva Health Services, and Lincare Holdings (all based in the US), along with LVL Médical Groupe (France), and Nestor Healthcare Group (UK).

Expenditures on home health services vary significantly from country to country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most European countries spend between 1 percent and 5 percent of their health care budget on home health care services. (In the US, home health care accounts for 3.3 percent of health care expenditures, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.) Funding sources include private pay, taxation (in those countries with nationalized health care systems), compulsory or voluntary insurance, and charitable contributions or funding from nongovernmental organizations.

The US home health care industry includes about 23,000 establishments (single-location companies and branches of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of $57 billion. High growth is forecast for the US industry over the next two years. Demand drivers include an aging population, the high cost of skilled nursing care in nursing homes, and the rise of accountable care organizations (ACOs) that coordinate care to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Developments in portable medical technologies, patients' preference for in-home care, and demographics are driving growth in home care services. The profitability ...