Table 1. Trends in home health agency services under Medicare for persons served, visits, charges, and program payments, by selected years: 1974-88.

Year of service	Persons served		Visits			Total charges in thousands	Visit charges				Program payments
	Number in thousands	Per 1,000 enrollees	Number in thousands	Per person served	Per 1,000 enrollees		Amount in thousands	Per visit	Per person served	Per enrollee	Amount in thousands	Per person served	Per enrollee
1974	392.7	16	8,070	21	340	$147,499	$137,406	$17	$350	$6	$141,484	$360	$6
1976	588.7	23	13,335	23	520	312,325	292,697	22	497	11	289,851	492	11
1978	769.7	28	17,345	23	639	500,747	474,498	27	617	18	435,322	566	16
1980	957.4	34	22,428	23	788	770,703	734,718	33	767	26	662,133	692	23
1982	1,171.9	40	30,787	26	1,044	1,296,454	1,232,684	40	1,052	42	1,104,715	943	37
1983	1,351.2	45	36,844	27	1,227	1,657,024	1,596,989	43	1,182	53	1,398,092	1,035	47
1984	1,515.9	50	40,337	27	1,324	1,982,033	1,843,706	46	1,216	61	1,666,253	1,099	55
1985	1,588.6	51	39,742	25	1,279	2,124,312	2,040,887	51	1,285	66	1,773,048	1,116	57
1986	1,600.2	50	38,359	24	1,208	2,190,238	2,102,253	55	1,314	66	1,795,820	1,122	57
1987	1,564.5	48	36,088	23	1,113	2,210,670	2,104,753	58	1,345	65	1,791,589	1,145	55
1988	1,601.7	49	37,713	24	1,144	2,453,974	2,341,441	62	1,462	71	1,945,768	1,215	59
	Average annual rate of growth
1974-88	10.6	8.3	11.6	1.0	9.1	22.2	22.4	9.7	10.8	19.3	20.6	9.1	17.7
1974-83	14.7	12.2	18.4	2.8	15.3	30.8	31.3	10.9	14.5	27.4	29.0	12.5	25.7
1983-88	3.5	1.7	0.5	−2.4	−1.4	8.2	8.0	7.6	4.3	6.0	6.8	3.3	4.6

SOURCE: Health Care Financing Administration, Bureau of Data Management and Strategy: Data are from the Medicare Decision Support System; data development by the Office of Research and Demonstrations.