The HPC’s Promoting Appropriate Transitions to Home (PATHways) investment program will support acute care hospitals in Massachusetts to advance hospital-to-home programs, streamlining patient discharges into their homes and communities rather than into skilled nursing facilities or other institutional settings.
Overview
The HPC’s new Promoting Appropriate Transitions to Home (PATHways) investment program will support acute care hospitals in Massachusetts to advance hospital-to-home programs, streamlining patient discharges into their homes and communities rather than into skilled nursing facilities or other institutional settings.
Following a hospital stay, patients may face numerous barriers setting up the appropriate services to enable them to discharge directly home or to a community-based setting, even when these may be the most appropriate settings for their continued care. The Massachusetts Transitions from Acute Care to Post Acute Care (TACPAC) Task Force found that, each day, there are 2,000 patients on average that remain hospitalized despite being medically ready for discharge.
Along with patient care quality impacts, challenges discharging patients from inpatient care exacerbate capacity constraints that result in increased lengths of hospital stays and emergency department boarding. The HPC has found that lengths of stay of greater than 30 days are increasing as a proportion of hospital stays, and account for half of the growth in bed days since 2016.
This program provides an opportunity for both new and existing hospital-to-home programs, specifically through partnerships between Aging Services Access Points (ASAPs) and acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. PATHways has been designed to build on the Executive Office of Aging & Independence (AGE)-funded Hospital to Home Partnership Program, which supported partnerships between hospitals and ASAPs and ended in 2025.
The program will fund up to nine awards for a total of $1.89 million, including: seven awards of up to $210,000 each from the Distressed Hospital Trust Fund, and; two awards of up to $210,000 each from the Payment Reform Trust Fund, which all Acute Hospitals are eligible for.
Request for Proposals and Information Session
The HPC issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the PATHways program on April 2, 2026. This RFP was open until June 4, 2026. The RFP and supporting materials are available on COMMBUYS.
Watch a recording of the PATHways public information session held on April 29, 2026, and view questions and answers from this session on COMMBUYS.
Please send questions about this program to [email protected].