The 8 Quotes That Defined Home-Based Care In 2025

In 2025, specific quotes from Home Health Care News’ conversations with provider executives and industry stakeholders stood out.

These quotes illustrate what 2025 held for home-based care providers, including the top pressures, strategies and growth opportunities. These quotes demonstrate pressure on home-based care providers’ reimbursement and margin landscapes, regulatory uncertainty and the weight that the government shutdown had on the industry.

The below remarks encapsulate 2025 and proved valuable to the home-based care industry.

“Each year, our role becomes more critical as more individuals choose to recover at home – often discharged earlier and sicker than ever before. Yet, CMS continues to undervalue this vital care by proposing reductions that threaten our ability to serve those most in need. These cuts exacerbate an already severe caregiver workforce crisis. … Talented professionals are being driven away from home health into hospitals and nursing facilities where pay is often higher, further weakening a system that depends on their dedication.”

– Dave Totaro, chief government affairs officer of Bayada Home Health Care and president and executive director of Hearts for Home Care (July 1, 2025) 

This quote from Totaro hits on the interplay of challenges facing the home health care industry. Medicare home health payment cuts, which have troubled the industry for years, further complicate an already tough workforce landscape. 

Some home-based care providers had to make difficult workforce decisions due to the difficult reimbursement environment. Bayada, for example, decided to lay off 10% of its headquarters staff in June, representing approximately 100 jobs.

While the final Medicare home health payment rule included a 1.3% aggregate reduction to the CY payment rate, a much softer cut than the proposed 6.4% aggregate cut, it remains to be seen if the workforce landscape will improve in 2026. 

“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to really feel the pain on this one. That continuity of care is now lost. … We have never been in this situation before, because [since] 2020, when all this was created, there hasn’t been a lapse in any of these flexibilities. Congress has continued the drumbeat. So now we’re trying to figure out, what do we even do?”

– Alexis Apple, director of federal affairs for ATA Action (Oct. 1, 2025)

The U.S. government shut down for a record 43 days this year, and this quote from Apple reveals the problem with the slew of short-term extensions that support the home-based care industry, such as the hospital-at-home waiver and Medicare telehealth flexibilities.

Without longer-term extensions, patient care can lapse and home-based care providers can suffer.

A clear example of the consequences of short-term extensions came at the beginning of December, when Inbound Health, a hospital-at-home enablement platform that has raised over $50 million, shut down due to regulatory uncertainty, including the government shutdown. 

“Although this is a relief for providers, clinicians and patients, ultimately it doesn’t cure the illness the industry is dealing with: a gross underestimation of the value of care at home. I fear that until CMS, lawmakers, and payers realize the value of care in the home, the industry will be stuck in payment reform ‘Groundhog Day.’”

– Brent Korte, CEO of Frontpoint Health (Dec. 1, 2025) 

One of the top concerns for home health providers in 2025 was the threat of the largest cut to the Medicare base payment rate ever proposed. The industry was able to breathe a sigh of relief in late November when the final rule included a much less drastic cut.

Still, the softened final payment rule reduced the home health payment rate. Korte’s quote reveals the tension between the relief the industry felt, coupled by continued frustration that CMS failed to more dramatically support the home health benefit.

“We’re on this collision course. Demand is going to be through the roof, and there’s not an equal tax basis behind them, of workers and whatnot. … But there’s not going to be enough caregivers, and that’s where innovation is going to play a role.”

– Margaret Haynes, CEO of Right at Home (May 19, 2025)

Two major tailwinds for the home care industry is older adults’ desire to stay in their homes, and the aging baby boomer population.

These tailwinds do not come without their challenges, however. Haynes’ quote illustrates that demand is not enough to sustain the home care industry when it is grappling with challenges like difficult recruitment and retention landscapes. 

Her call for more innovation is key and demonstrates that providers that leverage new care models and technologies will be best positioned to overcome some of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

“I think Medicare Advantage is rapidly becoming a failed policy in America. … When you have a reimbursement structure that is not continually evaluating the impact on the health care delivery system itself … where you have Medicare Advantage with quarterly profits that are significant, and parts of the health care continuum, from a provider perspective, that are unable to make the math work, unable to make the ends meet, and you’re seeing an erosion of rural access to hospital care [and] primary care, and certainly home health and other community based services, you have to ask yourself whether or not that Medicare Advantage policy is actually effective.”

– Ken Albert, CEO of Andwell Health Partners (July 21, 2025)

The rise of Medicare Advantage has squeezed home-based care providers margins even further. While some providers have leaned into Medicare Advantage, industry insiders have largely decried the low reimbursement rates and the added pressure to their margins. With Medicare Advantage enrollment reaching 54% in 2025, providers continue to find ways to innovate to find ways to keep their businesses afloat and growing. 

Albert’s quote also demonstrates that some patients, including those in rural areas, are hit harder by the effects of Medicare Advantage than others.

“In some respects, the challenge is a self-inflicted challenge, because the home health providers and other home care providers who command, by and large, the community of health care at home are just not investing in those other opportunities that are arising.”

– Bill Dombi, senior counsel for Arnall Golden Gregory law firm (May 2, 2025)

Dombi’s quote reveals an opportunity for home-based care providers: leaning further into new opportunities.

Top of mind for the former CEO of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), now part of the National Alliance for Care at Home, are opportunities in virtual health and other high-tech service opportunities, as well as programs like Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) or hospital-at-home programs.

Providers that invest their time and/or money into such opportunities make themselves part of the home-based care industry’s “broader future,” Dombi said.

“I think we’re going to continue to see regional consolidation. The national platforms are probably going to make some more strategic divestments, and we’re going to see this regional dynamic play out. … The Trump administration has only, I think, influenced enterprises to think in this density mindset even more, and place bets where they know the market dynamics.”

– Joe Widmar, director at West Monroe (June 24, 2025)

Threats to home health reimbursement rates moderated home health M&A in 2025, though personal home care saw more deals being inked. Another trend that was increasingly seen in 2025, however, is the move away from a breadth-is-better mindset and toward a focus on density.

Widmar’s quote predicts that notable players in the space will increasingly focus on their regional plays – driven in part by some uncertainty from the Trump administration. Looking to 2026, more providers may follow the example of Addus HomeCare Corporation (Nasdaq: ADUS), which sold its personal care business in New York in 2024 due to a difficult operating and reimbursement environment.

“[Our bundled-services program] has been a game changer to help fill a lot of gaps. It’s also provided a lot of opportunities for us to have additional partnerships with people in the community, for our franchisees, and with different clinicians to help bundle programs, and it has created some additional revenue streams.”

– Amanda Corrigan, chief operating officer of Home Helpers (Nov. 12, 2025)

While home care providers grapple with challenges like workforce availability, several notable opportunities are increasingly proving fruitful.

These opportunities include the potential for more complex home care services, such as cancer care, and bundled services programs that address gaps in care. With clear benefits for patients and added benefits for providers looking to expand revenue streams, more providers may turn to such models to evolve their businesses.