Virtual visits and technology readiness
An estimated 38% of US adults aged 65 and older were not ready for video visits, rising to about 72% of those over 85, because of difficulties with hearing, vision, speech, cognition, or inexperience with internet-enabled devices.
Lam, Lu, Shi & Covinsky, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2020 (National Health and Aging Trends Study)
12.01% of scheduled video visits were recorded as failed in a health system telemetry analysis; patients over 65 were 102% more likely, and Black patients 56% more likely, to experience a failure.
Demographic disparities in video visit telemetry, American Journal of Managed Care
Across 217,229 telehealth visits over 480 days, 10.33% met the criteria for failure due to poor connection, limited technical literacy, or related causes.
A comparison of techniques for predicting telehealth visit failure, 2025
20% of surveyed video visit patients reported technical problems, most commonly video trouble, audio trouble, dropped connections, and initial setup.
Patel et al., mHealth, 2021 (Michigan Medicine video visit program)
A structured pre-visit readiness contact significantly increased the likelihood of a successful video visit rather than a phone-only or non-completed one (odds ratio 0.54 for non-completion).
Gusdorf et al., Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2021
Forms, intake, and revenue cycle
Healthcare form abandonment runs near 68% across measured form interactions.
Forrester form analytics benchmark
Multi-step, one-question-at-a-time forms can convert up to 300% better than single-page walls of fields.
Venture Harbour form design research
Over 60% of patients complete forms on smartphones; poorly designed mobile forms are abandoned 20%+ more often.
Industry mobile form analytics
72% of patients want to complete intake digitally before the appointment; only 28% of practices offer it.
AMA Digital Health Study
Average check-in runs 25 to 35 minutes for new patients; digital pre-registration with prefill cuts it to 5 to 8, and returning patients to 2 to 4.
MGMA Patient Experience Benchmark
The average practice has 4 to 6 redundant intake steps, mostly re-collecting data the system already holds.
MGMA process guidelines
Registration and eligibility errors cause about 27% of all claim denials, the largest front-end cause.
Industry denial index analyses
Reworking a denied claim costs about $25 for practices and up to $181 for hospitals; 50 to 65% of denied claims are never reworked.
AHIMA denial management benchmarks
Number trust and consent
86 percent of calls from unknown numbers go unanswered; branded, recognized calls are answered up to 44 percent more often.
Hiya, State of the Call 2026
Verified business calls are three to five times more likely to be answered than anonymous calls.
First Orion, branded calling research
A phone number given to a HIPAA-covered provider is prior express consent for calls and texts carrying a healthcare message from that provider or its business associates; billing, payment, and marketing messages are excluded.
FCC 15-72, Omnibus Declaratory Ruling, July 2015
A revocation sent in reply to a healthcare message stops that type of message; other informational messages may continue unless the consumer indicates otherwise. Effective April 11, 2025, with a limited waiver of one provision to April 2026.
FCC 24-24; FCC DA 25-312
A registered 10DLC number carries voice, SMS, and MMS on the same ten digits; unregistered business texting is filtered or blocked by U.S. carriers.
The Campaign Registry; CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices
Workforce and operations
Caregiver turnover runs 75% and higher; 57% of it occurs within the first 90 days; replacing a caregiver costs $2,600 to $5,000.
Home care industry benchmarking; HHAeXchange
Only 29% of care staff describe their onboarding as structured; structured onboarding improves retention by 82%.
HHAeXchange; Brandon Hall Group
The average hospital readmission costs roughly $15,000.
AHRQ statistical briefs
Communication failure is among the most commonly cited root causes of serious healthcare adverse events.
The Joint Commission sentinel event data
Value-based care and post-discharge windows
Successful discharge to community means no unplanned acute or LTCH hospitalization and no death in the 31 days following discharge from home health; the DTC-PAC measure is risk-standardized from Medicare FFS claims.
CMS, Discharge to Community-Post Acute Care measure specifications
For CY2026, the expanded HHVBP applicable measure set carries three claims-based measures (PPH within-stay at 15%, DTC-PAC at 15%, MSPB-PAC at 10%); the OASIS-based and claims-based categories each contribute 40% of the Total Performance Score for the larger-volume cohort, with HHCAHPS at 20%.
CMS, CY2026 Home Health PPS final rule and expanded HHVBP model materials
The HEDIS Transitions of Care measure requires documented patient engagement (office, home, or telehealth visit) within 30 days after inpatient discharge, alongside medication reconciliation from discharge through day 30.
NCQA, HEDIS Transitions of Care (TRC) specifications
Transitional Care Management (CPT 99495 and 99496) requires interactive contact within 2 business days of discharge and a face-to-face visit within 14 or 7 days, over a 30-day service period billable once per discharge.
CMS, Transitional Care Management services billing guidance
Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program measures capture unplanned readmissions within 30 days of discharge from the index admission.
CMS, Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program
Home-based care demand and supply
Effective May 13, 2026, CMS imposed nationwide six-month moratoria (extendable in six-month increments) on new Medicare enrollment of hospices and home health agencies, including new branches and practice locations, and on re-enrollment after a change of majority ownership within 36 months; existing enrolled providers are unaffected.
CMS press release and Federal Register notices, May 2026
In 2024, 12,234 home health agencies participated in Medicare; 2.7 million FFS beneficiaries (7.9% of FFS enrollment) used home health, averaging 3.1 thirty-day periods and 8.3 in-person visits per period.
MedPAC, March 2026 Report to the Congress, Chapter 8 (home health)
In 2024, 6,706 hospices provided care to 1.82 million Medicare beneficiaries over 148.2 million days; 52.9% of Medicare decedents used hospice, rising with age (65 to 74: 41.1%; 75 to 84: 52.9%; 85 and older: 65.2%).
MedPAC, March 2026 Report to the Congress, Chapter 10 (hospice), Tables 10-2 and 10-3
Home health use climbs steeply with age: 16.7% of FFS beneficiaries 80 and older used home health in 2021 versus 6.1% of those 65 to 79, with 22.2 versus 18.9 visits per user; Medicare Advantage enrollment was associated with about 11% fewer visits per user.
MedPAC, June 2025 Report to the Congress, Chapter 3 (home health in Medicare Advantage), Tables 3-7 and 3-12
About 54% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage in 2024.
KFF, Medicare Advantage in 2024: Enrollment Update and Key Trends
From 2026 to 2036 the US population 65 and older grows about 18%, the 80 and older population about 56%, and deaths at 65 and older about 28%; the 80 and older share of seniors rises from 23% to 31%.
Census Bureau, 2023 National Population Projections (main series, single year of age); cohort arithmetic in QliqSOFT's open model, infra/research/rederive-demand.py
Holding 2024 use rates, visit intensity, and provider counts fixed, home health visits grow roughly 30% and hospice days roughly 32% from 2026 to 2036, which is about 3,700 additional home health agencies and 2,100 additional hospices at today's per-agency workload, or, with supply frozen, about a third more work per existing license.
QliqSOFT re-derivation from the MedPAC, Census, and KFF figures above; method and code published in the repository (infra/research/rederive-demand.py)
Hospice bereavement program operations
Hospices must provide bereavement services to the family and other individuals in the bereavement plan of care for up to one year following the patient's death, with a plan that states the services to be offered and their frequency; surveyors assess this under Appendix M of the State Operations Manual.
42 CFR 418.64(d); CMS State Operations Manual, Appendix M
Volunteers must provide day-to-day administrative or direct patient care services amounting to at least 5 percent of the total patient care hours of all paid hospice employees and contract staff.
42 CFR 418.78(e)
Bereavement staff make up about 3.6 percent of home hospice full-time equivalents.
National Alliance for Care at Home, Hospice Staffing Framework, March 2024
Hospice bereavement programs in the United States operate without national program standards; a 2026 review proposes advisory guidelines.
Garcia, Raine, Ortiz and Akstin, Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 2026
95 percent of surveyed healthcare leaders believed they had provided sufficient mental health resources for staff; 21 percent of clinicians agreed.
VITAL WorkLife survey, reported by Chief Healthcare Executive