Best Practice in Home-Based Medical Care for Neurodegenerative Diseases: the Taiwan Model.

OBJECTIVES

Neurodegenerative diseases pose increasing challenges to aging societies, requiring medical care models that extend beyond hospital-centered services. This article summarizes the development and implementation of Taiwan's home-based medical care (HBMC) model for people with neurodegenerative diseases.

DESIGN

Narrative policy review and descriptive synthesis.

SETTING AND

PARTICIPANTS

Taiwan's nationwide HBMC program is under the National Health Insurance system.

METHODS

This brief communication synthesizes Taiwan policy developments, programmatic structures, and implementation outcomes of HBMC, including its integration with advance care planning, acute care, home health care, post-acute care, and the hospital-at-home model.

RESULTS

Taiwan's HBMC has evolved through 3 stages, beginning with National Health Insurance-supported home health care in 1995, expanding into the integrated home-based medical care program in 2016, and advancing to the digitally enabled hospital-at-home model in 2024. The program demonstrates substantial structural capacity, effective care processes supported by telemedicine and point-of-care testing, and favorable outcomes, including reduced hospital utilization, lower healthcare expenditures, and effective targeting of functionally impaired older adults. Vertical integration across acute, post-acute, and long-term care services, together with horizontal collaboration among multidisciplinary teams, enables coordinated, continuous, and patient-centered care across the disease trajectory.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Taiwan's experience highlights the feasibility and effectiveness of integrated home-centered care for neurodegenerative diseases and offers transferable insights for health care systems facing rapid population aging.