Why Illinois?

Illinois is home to 2.1 million older adults, and at least 12% are 85+ years of age. In addition, more than 700,000 Illinois residents have ambulatory difficulties, and 40% of Medicare beneficiaries across the state have 4+ chronic conditions. Approximately 260,000 individuals in Illinois are homebound*, with only 26% of these receiving home-based primary care. The unmet needs in Illinois are great; it’s estimated that nearly 200,000 residents need home-based primary care but are not currently receiving it.

On the provider side, approximately 260 primary care providers (PCPs) in Illinois have seen 100 or more traditional Medicare patients at home between July 2020 and June 2021, with a median of 2+ visits per patient.  In contrast, it is estimated that 126 PCPs participating in the Medicare Advantage program made home visits in 2019, again with a median of 2+ visits per patient.

*Calculated using data from the 2019 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates and a journal article (Ornstein, Katherine A., Bruce Leff, Kenneth E. Covinsky, Christine S. Ritchie, Alex D. Federman, Laken Roberts, Amy S. Kelley, Albert L. Siu, and Sarah L. Szanton. “Epidemiology of the homebound population in the United States.” JAMA internal medicine 175, no. 7 (2015): 1180-1186.)