A wave of health systems has moved to launch or expand hospital-at-home programs in 2026, buoyed by a federal reimbursement extension that has given organizations the financial footing to invest in the care model.
After the federal government extended the CMS waiver to reimburse for acute hospital care at home through 2030, health systems have been expanding their programs.
The following systems have made notable moves in home-based care in 2026, as reported by Becker’s:
- Baptist Health (Jacksonville, Fla.): Baptist Health launched its hospital-at-home program, called Baptist Hospital at Home, at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville in February. The program provides 24/7 acute care services to select inpatients who are clinically stable, combining remote monitoring technology with daily virtual and in-person visits. The program is available to eligible adult inpatients at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville, with plans to expand to Baptist Medical Center South and other adult hospitals in the system.
- Saint Francis Health System (Tulsa, Okla.): Saint Francis Health System launched acute hospital care at home in January in collaboration with local payer CommunityCare, which is jointly owned by Saint Francis and Tulsa-based Ascension St. John. The program is being operated with home care company DispatchHealth and is the first of its kind in Northeast Oklahoma. The health system said the program will continue even if Medicare reimbursement stops.
- Cleveland Clinic: Cleveland Clinic expanded its hospital-at-home model to Northeast Ohio in March, launching on Cleveland’s west side to initially serve patients at Fairview Hospital and Avon Hospital. The program provides hospital-level care at home for patients who meet certain clinical criteria and live within a 25-mile radius of those facilities.
The 2026 activity comes after a period of uncertainty for the hospital-at-home model. When the CMS waiver lapsed in early 2026 during a government shutdown, several health systems were forced to pause new admissions. UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., stopped accepting new hospital-at-home patients Jan. 28, and patients receiving care by Jan. 30 were transferred back to hospitals for ongoing acute care. The subsequent extension of the waiver through 2030 has since stabilized the landscape.
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