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Careforth CEO and executive chairman Paul Kusserow said home health providers should move beyond episodic clinician visits toward longer-term models combining skilled services, family caregivers, technology and support for daily needs. His comments, delivered at HHCN’s FUTURE conference in August, describe a direction for the industry, not a newly announced policy or program.
Paul Kusserow called for home health providers to move beyond scheduled clinical visits and combine skilled services with family caregiver support, technology and help with daily living. The Careforth CEO and executive chairman and Elara Caring chairman made the case at HHCN’s FUTURE conference in August, saying a broader approach is needed to support people living for years with chronic illness and make long-term, value-based care workable.
Kusserow described the shift as a move away from a business model organized mainly around episodic, clinician-led visits. He said providers should combine skilled and non-clinical care, including help with activities of daily living (ADLs), attention to social determinants of health, and support for family members who care for people at home. He framed these services as part of caring for medically complex patients over longer periods and taking financial responsibility for outcomes.
He pointed to Careforth as one example of caregiver infrastructure. The Boston-based company works with family and other home-based caregivers in nine states, offering compensation, training, technology, clinical backup and other support. Kusserow said Careforth identifies people in the home of someone receiving a Medicaid waiver, trains and pays them to provide care, and offers resources and breaks. He said the company pays $50 a day for 24/7 care; the source report does not specify how that amount is calculated or whether the arrangement applies in every case.
Kusserow also called for providers to take on higher-acuity needs and develop disease-specific care models. He said technology and data could help teams recognize risks, make care more predictable and decide when intervention is needed. As an example, he described using information from many people with congestive heart failure to improve care planning for others with the condition. His comments set out an industry direction, not a formal announcement of a new Careforth service or a quantified outcome.
Why Chronic Care Could Reshape Home Health
The argument matters because people with chronic conditions may need support for years, while the traditional visit-based model is designed around discrete clinical encounters. Kusserow said recurring hospitalizations are economically unsustainable for health plans and government payers, and that home-based providers have an opportunity to help people remain at home while managing illness. That is his assessment of the market opportunity; the conference report does not provide financial analysis showing how much a broader model would save.
For patients and families, the proposed model puts daily support and caregiver capacity alongside clinical treatment. That reflects the practical role relatives, friends and personal care workers can play, while leaving clinical work to qualified professionals. AARP’s latest estimate cited in the report placed the economic value of adult caregiving by family caregivers at $1.01 trillion in 2024. It estimated that 59 million people helped an adult family member, neighbor or friend with daily activities that year, and that 63% provided care each month. Those figures describe the scale of caregiving, not the amount Careforth pays or the savings its model generates.
For providers, the approach could require new staffing, training, data systems and payment arrangements. Kusserow’s emphasis on value-based accountability points to a model in which providers are responsible for more than completing visits. Whether payers will reimburse the wider set of services—and whether providers can deliver them at sustainable cost—remains central to the proposal’s practical significance.
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Kusserow’s Home Care Experience
Kusserow has held leadership roles across home-based and broader health care. He was CEO and chairman of Amedisys from 2014 to 2025; UnitedHealth acquired the company in a $3.3 billion deal that closed in August 2025. He became Careforth’s CEO in June 2026 and joined Elara Caring’s board in August. He is also executive chairman of Unified Women’s Healthcare and a director of Matrix Medical Network, according to Home Health Care News.
The companies he leads or advises operate across different parts of care at home. Careforth provides payment, resources and support for home-based caregivers across nine states. Dallas-based Elara Caring offers skilled home health, hospice, behavioral health and personal home care across 18 states. That experience informs Kusserow’s remarks, but his conference comments should be understood as his views on where the sector should go, rather than as an industry-wide commitment.
The caregiving figures provide a separate measure of the issue he raised. AARP’s 2024 estimate found that 59 million family caregivers assisted an adult with daily activities, with an estimated economic value of $1.01 trillion. Kusserow cited a roughly $600 billion estimate for unpaid caregiver labor. The figures have different stated sources or framing in the report, so they should not be treated as directly interchangeable.
““That’s going to be a combination of skilled care and unskilled care.””
— Paul Kusserow, speaking at HHCN’s FUTURE conference
Costs, Payment and Outcomes Remain Open
The conference report does not establish whether Kusserow’s proposed model will become a standard across home health, or how quickly providers could adopt it. It also does not provide comparative evidence that caregiver payments, technology or disease-specific programs reduce hospitalizations, improve health outcomes or lower total costs.
Important operational details remain unspecified. These include how the reported $50 daily payment is funded and determined, which caregivers qualify, how training and clinical backup are structured, and how services would be covered across different Medicaid programs or other payer arrangements. Kusserow’s comments describe Careforth’s approach in broad terms; they do not answer those questions for the sector as a whole.
It is also unclear how providers would measure accountability for long-term results while coordinating skilled clinicians, family caregivers and community resources. The source report presents Kusserow’s views and AARP’s caregiving estimates, but does not include responses from payers, regulators or other home health providers.
The Test Is Implementation at Scale
The next steps depend on providers and payers turning the proposed approach into defined services, payment arrangements and measurable care plans. Providers would need to show how caregivers are recruited, trained and supported, how clinical oversight works, and how patient information is used to guide decisions. Payers would need to determine which services they will fund and what outcomes they expect in return.
For Careforth, a key question is whether its caregiver-support model can operate consistently across its nine-state footprint and under differing program rules. For the wider sector, evidence on patient outcomes, avoidable hospital use, caregiver experience and cost would help establish whether broader home-based models can meet Kusserow’s goals. No specific new rollout, deadline or evaluation was announced in the reported conference remarks.
Key Questions
What does Kusserow mean by the “next version” of home health?
He means a longer-term model that combines skilled clinical care with caregiver support, help with daily activities, technology and attention to social needs, rather than relying mainly on episodic clinician visits.
Did Kusserow announce a new home health program?
No. The report describes his comments at HHCN’s FUTURE conference in August. It does not announce a new program or a specific rollout schedule.
How does Careforth support family caregivers?
Kusserow said Careforth provides compensation, training, technology, clinical backup, resources and breaks. He described paying some caregivers $50 a day for 24/7 care, but the report does not detail eligibility or how that payment is set.
What role would technology play in the model?
Kusserow said technology and collected data could help providers identify risks, improve continuity and judge when a patient needs intervention. The report does not provide results from a specific technology program.
What remains unproven about the approach?
The report does not establish whether the model reduces hospitalizations or costs, improves outcomes, or can be adopted at scale. Payment rules, implementation details and evidence of impact remain open questions.
Source: rss
