Provider and consumer profiles of traditional and high-tech home health care: the issue of differential access.

This study, based on data from 154 home health care agencies, examines the comparative profiles of traditional and technology-enhanced, or "high-tech", home health care service providers and recipients. Voluntary, not-for-profit agencies have been providing services the longest, serve more patients, make more home visits, and have more staff. However, proprietary programs have grown faster than agencies under other auspices. One in 10 patients receives high-tech care, with hospice agencies serving the largest proportion of high-tech patients. High-tech patients are more likely to be younger, male, married, white, and living with others than other service recipients in general. A slight majority of agencies have special admissions criteria for high-tech patients. Variations in the profiles of traditional and high-tech patients are considered in terms of their implications for differential access to particular categories of in-home services.