Availability of Home Health Services in Minoritized Racial/Ethnic Group Areas
For patients recovering from surgery or disease, home health care is a critical piece of the care continuum. The availability of home health services in the United States varies from place to place depending on the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA). In the U.S., home health agency reporting services are not available in 5.9% of all ZCTAs and an additional 10.3% of ZCTAs receive services from a single agency. In 2020, 10.3% of all rural ZCTAs and 2.2% of all urban ZCTAs lacked home health service access. As a ZCTA becomes more rural and remote, these communities are more likely to lack any home health care or have limited service.
Home health agency availability for places with a relatively high proportion of residents from minoritized racial and ethnic groups were examined. Within racial/ethnic categories, rural ZCTAs were more likely than urban ZCTAs to lack home health agency services. Within rural ZCTAs in the top 5th percent for minoritized population group representation, non-Hispanic Black representation was less likely (2.5%) to lack all home health services and non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native representation was the most likely (40%) to lack all home health services.