Taiwan's national insurer reports lower costs for nursing-home residents treated at home

A prospective matched-controlled study, run under a national Hospital-at-Home pilot launched by Taiwan’s National Health Insurance in 2024, followed 60 nursing-home residents treated at home for acute infections (pneumonia, urinary tract infection, soft-tissue infection) across seven nursing homes between July 2024 and June 2025, matched 1:2 against 120 hospitalised residents. Care episodes were shorter for those treated at home (6.6 versus 11.8 days), and costs fell by 45.5–65.1% depending on diagnosis. Emergency-department revisits, readmissions and mortality were similar between the two groups; a subgroup with soft-tissue infection showed significantly fewer 14-day emergency-department revisits (7.4% versus 27.8%).

Primary Study This is a national-insurance-backed programme, but the study itself covers a modest number of residents across seven nursing homes, and Taiwan’s long-term care and reimbursement systems differ from the NHS’s — the absolute cost figures will not transfer directly. Its significance is in the population it evidences: institutionalised older adults, a segment with a direct equivalent in UK care homes, for whom hospital-at-home outcomes data at this quality has been comparatively rare.

For services considering hospital-at-home provision for care-home residents specifically, this is evidence that a funded, insurer-backed home-treatment model can preserve safety while reducing cost and length of care for this population — evidence worth weighing alongside, not instead of, UK-specific evaluation.