NEW ORLEANS—Broad access to care in the home would help solve the nation’s health care problems, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry told in-home care providers Sunday, Nov. 2 as he kicked off the annual meeting of the National Alliance for Care at Home.
“We should be encouraging in-home health, not discouraging (it) because I believe that people getting home health are actually getting a better product,” he said.
Landry welcomed attendees at the opening keynote for the Alliance's 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, saying that the country's building blocks of health care started in the home. He thanked the audience for safeguarding access to care while also making care more compassionate.
“I just think health care is strongest when it meets people where they are,” he said.
Landry highlighted Louisiana’s recent move to increase Medicaid provider reimbursement rates to 85% of the applicable Medicare rate. About a third of the state’s population is Medicaid eligible.
“We can’t keep pushing the rate paid by the government down and expect y’all to keep giving us better service,” he said.
He also said in-home care can provide the kind of innovation and efficiency that the health system needs in order to improve, because homecare provides high-volume care with better outcomes and has helped pioneer value-based are, telehealth and remote monitoring, along with other technologies.
The governor said his family’s own experience with hospice taught him that hospice workers are “some of the greatest human beings on the planet,” and that the COVID-19 pandemic showed the nation how important care at home is.
He also said homecare is central in caring not just for aging but for managing chronic diseases such as diabetes, and praised care providers for serving veterans, seniors and people with disabilities.
“At the end of the day, it truly is about caring for Americans and caring for our neighbors,” Gov. Landry said.