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At HHCN’s FUTURE conference in August, Careforth CEO Paul Kusserow argued that home health should expand beyond episodic clinician visits. He said providers will need to combine skilled care with family caregiver support, technology and broader help with daily needs as they take on more long-term and higher-acuity care.
Paul Kusserow, CEO and executive chairman of Careforth and chairman of Elara Caring, said home health providers should move beyond episodic clinician visits and build longer-term models combining skilled care, family caregiver support, technology and help with daily needs. Speaking at Home Health Care News’ FUTURE conference in August, he argued that this broader approach is needed to care for people living with chronic conditions and to support providers taking on financial risk for outcomes.
Kusserow said the established home health model, organized around clinician-led visits, may not be sufficient for a growing chronic disease burden. He called for providers to combine clinical services with non-clinical help, including assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and attention to social factors that affect a person’s ability to remain at home. The model, he said, would draw on family members, friends, personal care workers and community resources as well as licensed clinicians.
He described Careforth as one example of how providers can support family caregivers. The Boston-based company works with caregivers in nine states and offers compensation, training, technology, clinical backup and other resources. Kusserow said Careforth identifies family members or others in the home of a person receiving a Medicaid waiver, trains them and pays them to provide care. He cited a rate of $50 a day for 24/7 care, alongside support and breaks; the source report did not specify which programs or circumstances that rate applies to.
Kusserow also called for providers to take on higher-acuity needs and develop disease-specific care models. He said long-term care at home could help manage chronic illness and reduce avoidable institutional care, but did not present outcome data demonstrating that the approach has already reduced hospitalizations or costs. He pointed to data collection and technology as tools for monitoring patients, supporting continuity and helping caregivers identify when clinical involvement may be needed.
Caregivers Become Part of the Care Model
The proposal would broaden the work home health providers take responsibility for. Rather than centering care on scheduled professional visits, it treats family caregivers and non-clinical support as part of a longer-term system for helping people live at home. That matters to patients with ongoing needs, but also to families who often provide substantial care outside formal health services.
The scale of unpaid caregiving underscores the issue, though estimates differ by source and measure. Kusserow cited roughly $600 billion in unpaid caregiver labor each year. AARP’s latest estimate, as reported by Home Health Care News, valued adult caregiving at $1.01 trillion in 2024 and estimated that 59 million people helped an adult family member, neighbor or friend with daily activities that year. The figures use different estimates and should not be treated as directly comparable.
For providers and payers, the proposed model also connects home-based care with value-based accountability: taking responsibility for a person’s needs over time rather than delivering isolated visits. Whether that can improve outcomes or lower costs depends on implementation, payment arrangements and evidence that was not detailed in Kusserow’s remarks.
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Kusserow’s Home-Care Roles
Kusserow has held senior roles across home-based care and the wider health sector. He led Amedisys as CEO and chairman from 2014 to 2025; UnitedHealth acquired the company in a deal valued at $3.3 billion, which closed in August 2025. He became Careforth’s CEO in June 2026 and joined Elara Caring’s board in August. He also serves as executive chairman of Unified Women’s Healthcare and is a director at Matrix Medical Network.
Careforth provides payment, resources and support for home-based caregivers across nine states. Elara Caring, based in Dallas, provides skilled home health, hospice, behavioral health and personal home care across 18 states. Those roles give Kusserow experience with both caregiver support and clinical home care, but his conference remarks describe a direction he believes the industry should pursue, not an announced industry-wide policy or a new program with defined rollout dates.
“That’s going to be a combination of skilled care and unskilled care.”
— Paul Kusserow, speaking at HHCN’s FUTURE conference
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Evidence and Payment Details Remain Open
Kusserow’s remarks set out a proposed direction, but the report does not provide comparative results showing whether caregiver-inclusive programs reduce hospital use, improve patient outcomes or lower spending. It is also unclear how broadly Careforth’s cited $50-a-day payment applies, how that amount is funded, or what eligibility and service requirements govern it.
The remarks do not specify how providers would be paid for the broader model, how responsibility would be divided between family caregivers and clinicians, or what technology and data protections would be required. Those details matter for patients and families considering care at home, and for providers weighing whether they can safely take on higher-acuity patients and financial risk.
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Implementation Will Test the Proposal
The next test is whether providers and payers turn the proposed model into services with defined staffing, caregiver compensation, clinical oversight and measurable outcomes. Kusserow did not announce a new launch date, policy change or industry timetable at the conference. Further detail on Careforth’s programs or on how Elara Caring may apply the approach was not included in the report.
As home-based care organizations pursue higher-acuity and longer-term services, evidence on patient outcomes, caregiver support and costs will help show whether the model can work beyond individual programs. For now, Kusserow’s remarks make the direction clear—more integration of clinical care with family and community support—while leaving the scale, financing and results to be established.
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Key Questions
What does Kusserow mean by the next version of home health?
He means a model extending beyond episodic clinician visits to combine skilled services with caregiver support, help with daily activities, technology and longer-term accountability.
What caregiver support did he describe at Careforth?
Kusserow said Careforth trains and pays family members or others in the home of a person receiving a Medicaid waiver, and provides resources, technology, clinical backup and breaks. He cited $50 a day for 24/7 care; the report did not spell out the rate’s full eligibility or program conditions.
Why does he want home health providers to treat more complex conditions?
He argued that people can live for years with chronic illness and that home-based providers could play a larger role in managing those needs. The report did not establish that this approach has already reduced hospitalizations or costs.
Has Kusserow announced a new home health program or rollout?
No new launch or industry-wide rollout was reported. His remarks at the August conference described a model he believes providers should develop; the timing and scale of broader adoption remain unclear.
Source: rss
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