Disparities Identified in Home Health Care After Hip, Knee Replacement

THURSDAY, Sept. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Rural and dual-eligible (DE) Medicare beneficiaries undergoing hospitalization for hip or knee replacement have lower rates of timely initiation of home health care (HHC), according to a study published online Aug. 3 in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

Amit Kumar, M.P.H., Ph.D., from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues examined the association of DE status and rural residence with timely initiation of HHC and subsequent physical function following hip and knee replacement in a retrospective cohort study using data for 18,998 Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage beneficiaries aged 65 years and older.

Of those patients, 7,341 had hip replacements and 11,657 had knee replacements; 17 percent experienced delayed HHC initiation. The researchers found that rural and DE beneficiaries had a lower likelihood of timely HHC initiation compared with their counterparts (odds ratios [OR], 0.84 and 0.80, respectively), after adjustment for patient-, provider-, and market-level factors. Compared with their counterparts, rural and DE beneficiaries also had lower odds of mobility improvement (odds ratios, 0.80 and 0.68, respectively).

“Home health care is a key part of the recovery process after joint replacement,” Kumar said in a statement. “Ensuring that patients receive those services quickly could make a meaningful difference in how well they recover.”

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