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Congress just saved hospital care at home for 5 more years 🏠
On December 1, the House passed the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act, extending Medicare’s Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver through 2030.
This was set to expire January 30, 2026.
Here’s what makes this massive:
Over 300 hospitals across 37 states have been delivering acute-level care in patients’ homes since the pandemic. Real hospital care. Real monitoring. Real results.
The data is compelling:
30% reduction in hospital-acquired infections
38% lower readmission rates
20% cost savings per episode
96% patient satisfaction scores
But here’s the kicker:
This program almost died because Congress couldn’t decide if home-based acute care was “real” hospital care. Meanwhile, patients were getting IV antibiotics, continuous monitoring, and daily physician visits in their living rooms.
The AHA, AMA, and AAMC all backed this extension. Why? Because it works.
Patients recover faster at home. Families are more engaged. Hospital beds open up for those who truly need them.
Yet Medicare reimbursement still treats this like an experiment, not a proven care model.
The new law requires HHS to study outcomes and compare home vs. hospital metrics. We already know the answer, but bureaucracy needs its paperwork.
This isn’t just about convenience. It’s about reimagining where healthcare happens.
For rural communities with 2-hour drives to the nearest hospital, this is a lifeline. For elderly patients who decline rapidly in unfamiliar hospital settings, this is dignity. For health systems drowning in capacity issues, this is relief.
The 5-year extension gives us time to make this permanent. But why did we need to fight so hard for something that clearly works?
Because healthcare policy moves at the speed of committees, not patients.
♻️ Repost if hospital-at-home should be permanent, not temporary
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
