Home health care revisited: challenges for the future.

Home health care is a rapidly growing and diversified in­ dustly At the 1988 annual conference of the National Associa­ tion of Home Care, however, the most frequent comment heard by American Occupational Therapy Asso­ ciation (AOTA) representatives was that occupational therapy is the most underutilized service in home health care. The primary reasons given for the underutilization of occupational therapy were (a) fears about Medicare denials, (b) a lack of understanding about the role of occupational therapy in home health care, and (c) a short­ age of occupational therapy practi­ tioners to Ii [I available positions. In this paper, we will (a) exam­ ine demographic trends, federal and state legislation, and existing and pro­ posed reimbursement systems; (b) present AOTA's role in establishing guidelines and standards both inside and outside the profession; and (c) discuss the specialty practice of occu­ pational therapy in home health care. Sharon A. Stoffel Carol H. Gwin