Blog

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a rapid shift in the prioritization of medical care at home programs. Clearly, COVID-19 was a big driver of this phenomenon. However, care at home has continued to drive the future of healthcare even post-pandemic. Increasingly, patients are demanding it, and studies are showing that it improves outcomes.  One of many factors behind this push for medical care in the home vs. a facility is the aging US population. By the year 2060, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to comprise 23% of the population. And, of that population…

Even as a physician, navigating a recent medication change took me two weeks of frustrating back and forth phone calls and messages to my doctor, pharmacy and insurance company. My insurance payer had changed the approved brand of medication, the pharmacy had listed incompatible alternatives and my physician was not updated on any of this. In spite of my familiarity with healthcare and its systems, I had become a casualty of a phenomenon known as healthcare fragmentation.  In the United States, the structure of the healthcare system and its many services, initiatives and programs often results in healthcare fragmentation. Although…

The past three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have unmistakably been a period of rapid growth for healthcare services that focus on medical care in the home. Like any evolving model of care, this kind of healthcare must not compromise high-quality care for patients as it solidifies its position in the industry.  At Contessa, we’re proud to be able to say that our evolution from a leading hospital care at home provider to the leading provider of a full continuum of medical care in the home is setting the standard for high-quality, safe and effective care in…

On Tuesday, long-awaited legislation that impacts healthcare at home in 2023 and beyond was unveiled by Congress. With the passage of the new omnibus spending package, Congress has taken another step to recognize the importance of the innovation in healthcare spurred by COVID-19, specifically around policies like the hospital-at-home model and the expanding use of telehealth.    Here at Contessa, together with our parent company, Amedisys, Inc., we are proud to have unveiled our Comprehensive Care at Home model in 2022. This full continuum of care in the home sets the industry standard for this modality of care. And we’re…

Healthcare is constantly evolving, a fact particularly evidenced in the past two years since the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic has shifted into the rearview mirror in 2022, the changes it brought and the natural progression of improving care for all stakeholders— providers, payers, and patients- has solidified Contessa as a leader in changing the way healthcare is delivered.   A number of emerging trends have made home-based healthcare one of the fastest growing and most urgently needed healthcare services in the country. Contessa’s history and expertise has helped us to grow effectively and safely meet that need, a process that…

Palliative care is commonly approached by providers as a solution to initiate at or near the end of a patient’s life. Often, the focus of care for chronic and complex illnesses becomes how to mitigate the disease process itself, but not always how to manage its impact on activities of daily living. In other words, “fixing” a disease process sometimes overshadows living with a disease, until the negative effects can no longer be ignored, and the cure is acknowledged as unlikely. The fundamental root of palliative care is to change that. A new understanding of palliative care Increasingly, it is…

There really is no place like home for the more than six million Americans living with dementia. These individuals face memory loss and other cognitive barriers that are severe enough to interfere with daily life, both in familiar and unfamiliar environments. This is why a trip to the hospital can turn someone living with dementia’s world upside down, often leading to delirium, functional decline, and distress.  With the number of people aged 65 and older diagnosed with dementia expected to increase to 12.7 million by 2050, our healthcare system faces a tremendous challenge in treating these patients. A report published…

Hospital systems are facing enormous pressures in a post-COVID environment. The past two years have seen major challenges in decreasing the cost of care, increasing revenue, managing staffing constraints and addressing shifting consumer demands. In the same way that the rest of the world has adapted to the many changes that the COVID pandemic introduced, the delivery of healthcare is evolving as well.  In rising to meet these challenges, novel approaches are necessary. Thankfully, hospital systems who turn to a partnership with Contessa find a source of innovative solutions for these key issues that hospital systems face today. Having Contessa…