Health Care Job Growth Driven by Home Care

Health care is one sector where new jobs are constantly being created, but a new trend is emerging within the continuous increase in health care jobs — there are huge gains in home health jobs.

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that almost a third of health care jobs created in August were in the home health care sector. Since 2012, home health care has added more than 93,000 new jobs. Last month there were nearly 10,000.

According to the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare, the increase in new home health jobs far outpaced new opportunities at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.

"The August jobs report underscores the value home health brings to the American health care system," Eric Berger, chief executive officer of the Partnership, said in a statement.

Home health care jobs are expected to continue to increase as baby boomers age since the generation prefers to receive treatment at home.

However, the Partnership has raised concerns about proposed Medicare cuts. They claim that the Home Health Prospective Payment System calls for rebasing of home health care by 14% over the next four years, which comes to 3.5% per year.

“Our community remains highly concerned that proposed cuts to Medicare home health will stifle job growth, while also limiting patient access to the home-based health services our nation's seniors demand,” Berger said. "To ensure much-needed health care jobs and patient care are not at risk, we encourage CMS to conduct a more thorough multi-year analyses of the proposed rule and its impact on a health care sector that is poised to support job and economic growth."