Annual report captures post-acute care at a turning point: Medicare Advantage growth plateaus, FFS volumes show signs of a new baseline, and hospice growth accelerates — with every trend now explorable down to the state level.

ATLANTA, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trella Health today released its Post-Acute Market Intelligence Report: 2026 Edition. For the first time, every chart is fully interactive, turning the post-acute care industry’s trusted annual benchmark report into a working market-analysis tool. The report examines the trends reshaping care delivery, referral patterns, and growth opportunities across the post-acute care market.

The findings point to a post-acute market at a pivotal moment. After nearly a decade of consistent expansion, national Medicare Advantage penetration held flat at 55.4% through January 2026. At the same time, fee-for-service hospice admissions grew at their fastest rate in five years, while skilled nursing admissions recorded their first annual increase since 2022.

The fully interactive 2026 edition adds new analyses of home health start-of-care times, hospice adoption timing and cost of care, and the role of home health and skilled nursing in TEAM Model success, while expanding interactive state-level views of quality, discharge patterns, and length of stay.

“Post-acute care organizations are navigating a market shaped by increasingly complex patient needs, evolving payer dynamics, and greater accountability for performance across the broader healthcare system,” said Scott Tapp, CEO of Trella Health. “Our goal with this report is to help leaders see what is changing in their markets, understand what those changes mean for their organizations, and make smarter decisions about how to grow while improving patient outcomes.”

Key findings from the 2026 report include:

Medicare Advantage growth went flat for the first time in a decade
National Medicare Advantage penetration held at 55.4% through January 2026 after increasing by an average of 2.1 percentage points annually since 2017. Thirty states now have Medicare Advantage penetration above 50%, including 14 states above 60%.

Home health start-of-care performance differs widely across states
The average time from inpatient discharge to the start of home health care increased nationally to 3.3 days in 2025. Start times slowed in 39 states, with state averages ranging from 2.3 days to 6.5 days. 

Earlier hospice adoption is associated with lower end-of-life Medicare spending
Patients with 121 or more days on hospice averaged a $29K lower total cost of care over their final six months than patients who never enrolled, $68K versus $97K.

Hospice admissions continue to accelerate
Fee-for-service hospice admissions increased 4.1% in 2025, rising from approximately 1.61M to 1.68M. Hospice admissions have now increased 18.5% nationally since 2019, although admissions growth varies considerably by state.

Skilled nursing admissions returned to growth
Fee-for-service skilled nursing admissions increased 1.7% to approximately 1.58M in 2025, marking its first annual increase since 2022. However, the recovery remains uneven, with admissions increasing in 27 states and declining in 24.

TEAM raises the stakes for post-acute referral relationships
Across the five TEAM surgical episodes, discharge patterns vary widely and average costs range from roughly $30K for joint replacement to $51.3K for coronary artery bypass graft procedures — underscoring the need for post-acute providers to demonstrate their value to hospital referral partners and support stronger care transitions.

“We hear it from post-acute leaders every year. This report shapes their planning,” said Scott Tapp, CEO of Trella Health. “Making it interactive gives them a more practical way to explore what is changing in their markets and apply those insights to growth strategies, referral relationships, and patient outcomes.”

The report is available for free at: https://www.trellahealth.com/resource-center/report/2026-post-acute-market-intelligence-report/

About Trella Health 

Trella Health is an AI-enabled intelligence and workflow platform that helps health systems and post-acute providers make smarter decisions by strengthening referral relationships, coordinating patient transitions, and improving operational and clinical outcomes.

Powered by billions of healthcare data points spanning claims, referrals, patient discharge, and clinical EHR data, Trella transforms fragmented healthcare data into actionable intelligence and embeds it directly into the workflows where decisions are made.

Trella serves post-acute providers, HME/DME, infusion, specialty pharmacy organizations, and health systems nationwide.

For more information, visit www.trellahealth.com or follow Trella Health on LinkedIn.

press@trellahealth.com

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SOURCE Trella Health