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Home Health Compare

"Home Health Compare" is an effort by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a Federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to help consumers make more informed decisions about their home care, based on generally accepted measures of quality of care criteria, outcome measures, and quality measures that have been tested for accuracy and reliability. By providing information about health care quality to consumers and the home health industry, CMS is attempting to stimulate and support providers and clinicians to improve the quality of health care.

Home Health Compare has data only for Medicare-certified agencies (also known as Certified Home Health Agencies or CHHAs). The structure of home care in New York State is unique and this will have an impact on a consumer using "Home Health Compare" to look at agencies in New York. For example, New York's many Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs) are not Medicare-certified and, therefore, not included in Home Health Compare although they provide many types of home care services and are regulated and licensed by the State of New York.

New York has two other unique programs (which are Medicare certified) that serve distinct patient populations. These distinct patient populations make comparisons of patient data with regular CHHAs invalid. These two programs are:

Long Term Home Health Care Programs (LTHHCPs), also known as "Nursing Homes Without Walls," are CHHAs that offer health care and support services to the disabled and chronically ill who are medically eligible for admission to a nursing home, but who choose to be maintained at home.

Special Needs CHHAs are CHHAs serving patients with particular conditions or diseases such as AIDS.

Further information:

For a full explanation of home care in New York, please visit HCP's "What is Home Care?" page.

For more information on Home Health Compare, here is an HCP background article (Adobe Acrobat document) on the subject.

HCP's Provider Search Engine includes all types of home care agencies in New York State and allows you to restrict your search by county served, by type of service and by payer source.

Remember, Home Health Compare is a useful tool but it should not be your only source of information when selecting a home care agency. Other sources include your physician and family or friends who have used home care services. Contacting home care agencies in your area to discuss your needs and how they can serve you is always a good idea.

Click here to return to the Federal Home Health Compare website.