Homefront becomes Medicare-certified

WARWICK – Homefront Health Care, a large provider of in-home health care in Rhode Island, has gained Medicare certification, allowing it to provide additional care for its clients.
With the certification, Homefront said, it will now be able to provide acute care services under Medicare in addition to the long-term care services it offers under Medicaid. Acute care includes skilled nursing care as well as speech, occupational and physical therapy.
“Medicare certification will allow us to meet more of our clients’ health care needs,” said President and CEO Bob Caffrey. “Being able to provide both acute and long-term care allows us to provide the comprehensive services that enable people to stay at home longer.”
Opened in 1966 and accredited by the Joint Commission, Homefront is a nonprofit agency with offices in East Providence, Harmony, Providence, Warwick, Westerly and Woonsocket. It makes more than 3,000 visits a week to nearly 800 frail elderly and chronically ill patients.
With the certification, Caffrey said, Homefront will be able to provide better-coordinated care for clients when they’re discharged from hospitals or nursing homes.
The agency said it sought Medicare certification, in part, because of the state’s ongoing overhaul of Medicaid under the federal global waiver. The state is seeking to shift care away from institutions and into elders’ homes, and it’s looking to home care providers that can provide both Medicare and Medicaid services.
“In-home care can be less expensive than nursing home care, and people overwhelmingly prefer to receive care at home,” Caffrey said. “Medicaid reform can go a long way in shifting services to the home, and we are now able to provide all of those services.”