In a groundbreaking study, Hoag Hospital, a leading for-profit regional health care delivery network in Orange County, California, presented the results of a one-year analysis at the 2023 American Association of Orthopedic Executives (AAOE) conference. The study demonstrated that the Luna in-home outpatient physical therapy care model can reduce costs by 52% compared with traditional home health for total knee and hip replacements.

Hoag Orthopedic Institute (HOI) conducted the study between 2021 and 2022 in collaboration with Luna, the leading provider of in-home outpatient physical therapy, to create a solution aimed at reducing per episode care costs through the use of in-home outpatient physical therapy in lieu of traditional home health services. The complete study can be viewed here.

As healthcare spending continues to rise, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons forecast a substantial increase in total knee replacement or total hip replacement surgery, with projected growth rates of up to 171% and 189% respectively by 2030.

The Hoag Orthopedic Institute performance improvement project showed that collaborating with the Luna care model, participating surgeons reduced their home health utilization by 86%, resulting in decreased average blended costs of $2,517 per case. Patient outcomes also improved as readmission rates were reduced by 28%, compared with patients that received the traditional home health option. 

Patients also demonstrated clinically important changes in pain and patient-specific functional scale scores of 66% and 76% respectively, and rated Luna with a world-class net promoter score of 89. 

"Luna's care model is cost-effective and leads to better patient outcomes when compared with traditional home health, and is revolutionizing healthcare delivery nationwide. By making high-quality care more accessible to patients, Luna can provide postoperative total hip replacement and total knee replacement patients with a more efficient alternative to traditional home health services," said Palak Shah, Co-Founder and Head of Clinical Operations at Luna. 

At HOI, overutilization of home health visits was also a challenge, especially because of Covid19, with patients utilizing an average of eight visits of home health prior to continuing care at an outpatient facility.

While a typical course of care at Luna consists of completing the entire care plan with a Luna therapist (all billed under outpatient rates, and delivered to the home), Hoag had patients complete the initial four to six treatment sessions with Luna prior to transitioning to an outpatient facility.