Hospital at home marketing: CMS waiver and claims

A hospital at home program treats patients who need hospital-level care in their own homes, with nurses, paramedics and physicians visiting in person and checking in by video. For a hospital, it is a service that patients and families want to hear about and that referring physicians need to understand. It is also a service that exists in Medicare because of a federal waiver with an end date set by Congress, that can only take patients who are already in the emergency department or admitted, and that a patient can decline. Marketing that ignores those facts promises things the program cannot do. This guide sets out what a hospital should know before it builds web pages, brochures, physician materials and outreach for a hospital at home program.

Two related topics have their own guides and are not repeated here. Tracking technologies on hospital websites, patient story authorizations, physician-owned hospital disclosures and the notices that belong on a hospital site are covered in our hospital marketing compliance guide. Home health is a separate Medicare benefit with its own eligibility, referral and patient choice rules, covered in our home health agency marketing guide.

This is general information, not legal or medical advice. Sources cited were checked on October 30, 2026: 42 U.S.C. 1395cc-7 (section 1866G of the Social Security Act), section 6210 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (Public Law 119-75, February 3, 2026), the CMS program document Acute Hospital Care at Home Program Approved List of Hospitals as of 1/29/2021, the CMS fact sheet on the report on the study of the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative (September 30, 2024), the CMS blog post Lessons from CMS Acute Hospital Care at Home Initiative (December 17, 2024), 42 CFR 482.13, the Medicare.gov page Inpatient hospital care, 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7a and 1320a-7b, 45 CFR 164.501, 47 CFR 64.1200, 15 U.S.C. 45 and 52, and the FTC policy statements on deception and advertising substantiation. Payment amounts and billing codes are not covered here. Medicare Advantage plans, other payers and state licensing rules can add their own conditions, set plan by plan and state by state.

What hospital at home means in Medicare terms

Medicare calls the model the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative. It began during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and Congress later wrote it into section 1866G of the Social Security Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 1395cc-7. Under 1395cc-7(a)(1), the Secretary of Health and Human Services must grant the initiative’s waivers and flexibilities to an individual hospital that submits a request and meets the specified criteria.

The waivers in 1395cc-7(a)(2) explain why the model needs special permission at all. They include a waiver of the requirements to provide 24-hour nursing services on premises and for the immediate availability of a registered nurse under 42 CFR 482.23(b), waivers of the physical environment and Life Safety Code requirements under 42 CFR 482.41, flexibility for the hospital to furnish inpatient services outside the hospital under arrangements, and a telehealth waiver so the patient’s home or temporary residence can count as an originating site.

Two points matter for marketing. First, the patient is a hospital inpatient. The statute speaks of inpatient hospital admissions, and the hospital must use criteria to ensure that services go only to people who require an inpatient level of care. Hospital at home is not home health, not remote patient monitoring and not a home visit service, and copy should not blur those lines. Second, the waivers are granted to an individual hospital. A health system should only advertise the program at the hospitals that hold the waiver, and a page that lists locations should match that.

Put the end date on your review calendar

The waiver authority has an end date in the statute. Section 6210 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, signed February 3, 2026, amended 1395cc-7(a)(1) by replacing January 30, 2026 with September 30, 2030. As of the check date above, the statute covers inpatient admissions through September 30, 2030.

That date has moved before. The notes to the statute show earlier amendments that set end dates of March 31, 2025, September 30, 2025 and January 30, 2026, in laws signed on December 21, 2024, March 15, 2025 and November 12, 2025. The November 12, 2025 law was signed after the September 30, 2025 date had already passed. A program page written in 2024 and left alone would have been out of date more than once.

For marketing, this means three things. Do not call the program permanent or describe Medicare coverage of it as settled for good. Add the September 30, 2030 date to the calendar of whoever owns the program pages, with a review well before it. And if Congress changes the date again, or CMS ends a hospital’s participation, change the pages the same week. Under 1395cc-7(a)(4), the Secretary may terminate a hospital from the initiative if it no longer meets the criteria, so no single hospital can count on staying in it.

Who can be admitted, and why there is no sign-up form

Under 1395cc-7(a)(3)(C), the hospital must ensure that a person is only eligible if they are a hospital inpatient, or a patient of the hospital’s emergency department for whom the hospital determines that an inpatient level of care is required. Under (a)(3)(A), a physician must document in the medical record that each person meets the hospital’s criteria. The CMS program document from January 2021 also states that patients will only be admitted from emergency departments and inpatient hospital beds, and that an in-person physician evaluation is required before services at home start.

So hospital at home is not something a member of the public can request from home. A web page with a button that says sign up for hospital at home, or a form that invites people to apply, sets up an offer that the rules do not allow. The honest framing is awareness: explain what the program is, say that it is offered to some patients who come to the emergency department or are admitted, and say that the care team decides whether it is a clinical option for a given patient. Anyone who is unwell right now should be told to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department, not to fill in a form.

The CMS fact sheet on the 2024 study says participating hospitals described selection criteria intended to ensure that eligible patients were willing and able to take part, were clinically and psychosocially appropriate for care at home, and had home and community environments suited to safe care. Your page can explain, in general terms, that the team looks at the person’s condition, home and support before offering the program. It should not list the hospital’s internal criteria as if meeting them entitles a person to the program.

Patient choice: an option, not an assignment

Under the hospital conditions of participation, 42 CFR 482.13(b)(2), the patient or their representative (as allowed under state law) has the right to make informed decisions regarding their care, including being informed of their health status, being involved in care planning and treatment, and being able to request or refuse treatment. A hospital at home offer sits squarely inside that right.

Write patient-facing copy so the choice is visible. Say that the care team may offer the program, that the patient and family can ask questions first, and that the patient can decline it. Explain what the patient and family will be asked to do at home, such as having someone available at certain times or keeping equipment charged, if your protocol requires it. Avoid wording that suggests the patient has been assigned to home care or that saying no will affect their treatment.

Describe what happens if the person’s condition changes. The 2026 amendment added transfers from home to the hospital, including their timing and causes, to the subjects of the next federal study under 1395cc-7(c)(1), so these transfers are part of how the model works. A page can explain your own process for bringing a patient back to the hospital in plain terms. It should not promise a response time your program has not set in its protocol.

Describing the care at home

The CMS program document from January 2021 lists the requirements CMS set for participating hospitals at that time. They include screening protocols for medical and non-medical factors before care at home begins, a daily evaluation by a physician or advanced practice provider either in person or remotely, a daily evaluation by a registered nurse either in person or remotely, two in-person visits daily by registered nurses or mobile integrated health paramedics based on the nursing plan and hospital policies, an immediate on-demand remote audio connection to a team member who can connect a nurse or physician, the ability to respond to a decompensating patient within 30 minutes, safety metric tracking and a local safety committee.

Those items give you a factual outline for a program page, but check them against your hospital’s own approved waiver request and current CMS requirements before you use them. The 2021 document described the program at launch, and your protocol may set a higher standard. Write what your program does, for example: a nurse or paramedic visits you at home at least twice a day, a physician or advanced practice clinician sees you every day in person or by video, and you can reach the team by phone or video at any hour.

Avoid lines that the protocol does not support. A nurse at your bedside around the clock is not what the model provides, since it rests on a waiver of 24-hour on-premises nursing. Doctors visit you at home every day is wrong if daily physician evaluations can happen by video. Hospital care without the hospital is a fair slogan only next to a clear description of what is and is not in the home.

The statute also says, at 1395cc-7(a)(3)(B), that the hospital and anyone providing services under arrangements must ensure the standard of care at home is the same as the standard of care for an inpatient in the hospital. That is a duty the hospital takes on, and a page can say the hospital is responsible for the care at home just as it is in the building. It is not evidence that results are the same or better, which the next section covers.

Safety, comfort and outcome claims

Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45, prohibits deceptive acts or practices, and 15 U.S.C. 52 prohibits false advertisements likely to induce the purchase of services. Under the FTC Policy Statement on Deception, a claim is judged by the net impression it leaves on a reasonable consumer, and leaving out material information can make it misleading. Under the FTC Policy Statement Regarding Advertising Substantiation, the advertiser needs a reasonable basis for objective claims before making them.

Lines such as safer than staying in the hospital, you will recover faster at home, fewer infections or fewer readmissions are objective claims about outcomes. They need evidence that applies to your program and your patients. The federal study is not a shortcut. The CMS fact sheet on the September 2024 report says that patients in the initiative were meaningfully different from inpatients at the same hospitals, which may be partly due to hospital selection criteria. The December 2024 CMS blog post lists limitations, including the inability to conduct a rigorously controlled study comparing the two groups and a lack of standardized inclusion criteria across hospitals, and says the study did not evaluate long-term efficacy.

If you want to mention the federal research, quote CMS exactly, name the document and its date, link to it, and include the limitations CMS gave in the same place. Do not restate a CMS comparison as a result of your program. For your own program, publish outcome figures only if they come from your records, describe the patient group and time period, and have been reviewed by your quality and legal teams. Our guide to patient testimonials covers patient stories and endorsements, which carry their own rules.

Comfort claims need the same care. Sleeping in your own bed and having family nearby are facts about where care happens, and they are fair to say. Lines that promise a better experience, less stress or a quicker return to normal life are claims about outcomes for the patient. Keep them out unless you can support them for your program, and never present a single patient’s story as what every patient will feel.

Cost and inducements

Because the statute treats these as inpatient hospital admissions, avoid copy that calls the program free or says there is no cost to the patient. The Medicare.gov Inpatient hospital care page explains what a person pays for each benefit period, starting with the Part A deductible, and notes that people in a Medicare Advantage Plan may be charged copayments. Link to that page, tell Medicare Advantage members and people with other coverage to check with their plan, and give a contact who can answer cost questions for a specific stay.

Items that are part of the inpatient care, such as monitoring equipment, meals or the supplies the protocol calls for, should be described as part of the hospital stay, not as gifts or perks for choosing the program. Under 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7a(a)(5), offering remuneration to a Medicare or state health care program beneficiary that the offeror knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary to order or receive items or services from a particular provider can lead to civil monetary penalties. Anything offered beyond the care itself, such as gift cards, devices the patient keeps or help with bills, belongs with counsel before it appears in any material.

On the referral side, 42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b) makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully offer or pay remuneration to induce referrals of items or services paid by a federal health care program. Arrangements with physicians, skilled nursing facilities, payers or vendors that steer patients toward the program, and any payment tied to the number of patients admitted to it, need review by counsel. Our home health guide linked above explains the statute and its safe harbors in more depth.

Outreach, data and the handoff after discharge

Patient data from the program is protected health information. Under 45 CFR 164.501, communications about a covered entity’s own health-related products or services fall outside the HIPAA definition of marketing in defined cases, and care coordination for an individual is excluded too. That covers telling current patients about the program as part of their care. Using program data for wider promotion, sharing it with third parties, or receiving financial remuneration from a third party for a communication, can fall inside the marketing definition and require authorization. Website tracking on program pages is covered in our hospital marketing compliance guide linked above.

Calls and texts to former patients and families, such as follow-up surveys or invitations to events, have their own rules. 47 CFR 64.1200 restricts autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts to wireless numbers without the required consent, and sets added requirements for calls that include advertising or telemarketing. Health care messages fall under specific conditions in that rule, so keep consent records and check the rule before you automate any outreach.

When the hospital stay ends, a patient may need home health, skilled nursing or follow-up visits. That transition is not a marketing channel for the hospital’s own affiliated services. The patient choice rules for post-acute services, and how follow-up outreach after discharge works, are covered in our home health guide and our guide to transitional care management outreach.

Illustration: two versions of a program page

Illustration: a hospital launches a page titled Get hospital care at home, with a large button that says Apply now, a headline that says Safer, faster recovery in the comfort of home, a line that says no cost with Medicare, and a photo caption saying a nurse is with you around the clock. Every one of those elements causes a problem. The program only admits people from the emergency department or an inpatient bed, the safety and recovery claims have no support for this hospital, the stay is an inpatient admission with Part A costs, and the waiver rests on not having 24-hour on-site nursing.

Illustration: the revised page is titled Hospital at home at our main campus. It explains that some patients who come to the emergency department or are admitted may be offered hospital-level care at home, that the care team decides whether it is a clinical option, and that patients can decline. It lists the visits and video check-ins the program provides under its protocol, explains how a patient returns to the hospital if needed, links to the Medicare.gov page on inpatient costs, states that the program runs under a federal waiver currently set through September 30, 2030, and tells anyone who is unwell now to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. It makes no comparison with inpatient outcomes.

Checklist

Confirm that each hospital named on the page holds an approved waiver under 42 U.S.C. 1395cc-7.
Show the program as an option offered to emergency department patients and inpatients, with no public sign-up or application form.
Say that the care team decides whether the program is a clinical option and that the patient can decline.
Describe visits, video check-ins and the route back to the hospital as your own protocol sets them.
Remove around-the-clock bedside nursing and daily in-person physician lines unless the protocol provides them.
Do not call the program free; link to the Medicare.gov inpatient costs page and give a cost contact.
Describe equipment and meals as part of the hospital stay, and send any extras to counsel under 1320a-7a(a)(5).
Remove safer, faster or fewer readmissions claims unless they rest on your own reviewed records.
Quote any CMS study finding exactly, with its date, link and the limitations CMS gave.
Add the September 30, 2030 waiver date to the page owner’s calendar, with a review before it.
Include a 911 and nearest emergency department line for anyone who is unwell now.

How we help

We build websites, local search, Google Ads and AI front desk tools for independent practices and health businesses. For a hospital at home program, that means a website page that explains the model the way the statute and CMS describe it, a page for referring physicians, and inquiry flows that send questions to staff rather than inviting people to sign up. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it. We are not a healthcare provider and we do not give legal or medical advice. We do not sell lead lists and we do not pay for referrals. For the wider rules, see our healthcare marketing rules hub.

Is the Medicare hospital at home waiver still in effect?

As of October 30, 2026, 42 U.S.C. 1395cc-7(a)(1) covers inpatient admissions through September 30, 2030, after section 6210 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, signed February 3, 2026, replaced the earlier January 30, 2026 end date. Check the statute again before relying on that date.

Can patients sign up for hospital at home directly?

No. Under 42 U.S.C. 1395cc-7(a)(3)(C), only hospital inpatients and emergency department patients whom the hospital determines need an inpatient level of care are eligible, and a physician must document that the person meets the hospital’s criteria.

Can a patient refuse hospital at home?

Yes. Under 42 CFR 482.13(b)(2), a hospital patient or their representative has the right to make informed decisions about their care, including being able to request or refuse treatment. Program materials should present it as an option.

Can we say hospital at home is safer than staying in the hospital?

Not without evidence that applies to your program. Under 15 U.S.C. 45 and 52 and the FTC substantiation statement, objective claims need a reasonable basis, and CMS has described limitations in its own comparisons, including differences between the patient groups.

Can we say the program is free for Medicare patients?

No. The statute treats these as inpatient hospital admissions, and the Medicare.gov Inpatient hospital care page explains the Part A deductible and other costs per benefit period. Link to that page and offer a contact for cost questions.

Is hospital at home the same as home health?

No. Hospital at home patients are hospital inpatients receiving an inpatient level of care under a CMS waiver. Home health is a separate Medicare benefit with its own eligibility rules, and a patient may move to it after the hospital stay ends.

Sources

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Hospital at home program marketing: the CMS waiver, who can be admitted, patient choice and claims