eAlert Tue, 02/03/2015 - 12:00 fecdde49-bebc-4220-9c58-29deca2bfb84

Around 4 million Americans have chronic illnesses and disabilities that make it difficult — if not impossible — for them to leave their homes, even for medical care. They are an often forgotten group, one that typically cycles in and out of hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, and a costly one as well.

In a “Q&A” — the first in a new series by The Commonwealth Fund — we talked to Bruce Leff and Christine Ritchie, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco, about their recent Health Affairs article on treating this population, the advantages of providing team-based care to people in their homes, and the pressing need for measures to ensure home-based care meets quality benchmarks.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2015/feb/providing-care-for-the-invisible-homebound Read the Q & A.