Homecare Hub Awarded NIH SBIR Grant to Support Complex Hospital Discharges

CHICAGO, March 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Homecare Hub, an innovative tech-enabled services platform advancing high-quality, small care home-based healthcare delivery for medically complex adults, announced it has received a Phase 2 SBIR research award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging (NIA). The grant will support the project titled "Scaling a network of small community-based care homes as high-value alternatives to institutional care".

Homecare Hub's platform leverages technology to enable and scale small, community-based residential care homes to provide personalized care for adults with complex health needs. Homecare Hub's wraparound care coordination, clinical oversight, quality & safety measures, and in-home technology are particularly appealing to health systems and payers who face discharge challenges. After delivering improved outcomes in its early data, this phase 2 project will be a multi-state national study. The NIH-funded research is evaluating healthcare utilization and clinical outcomes of the model as an alternative to traditional institutional long-term care and is measuring hospital throughput for health systems that utilize the model.

"Healthcare systems are struggling to discharge a growing population of medically complex adults who do not fit well into traditional institutional settings. This is one of the most significant problems in the country," said Dr. Vipan Nikore, an internal medicine hospitalist physician and CEO of Homecare Hub. "Tech-enabled small care homes that conform to high-quality protocols can solve this problem by unleashing capacity quickly and functioning as a high-value alternative to institutional long-term care. We've proven the system works with real-world evidence, but rigorously evaluating at scale is important."

Across the US and globally, hundreds of millions of older adults face fragmented healthcare, poor transitions of care, and impersonalized services. Traditional institutional models can contribute to poorer outcomes, reduced autonomy, and higher costs. Homecare Hub's approach integrates small, shared living care homes, clinical oversight, and data-driven coordination to better align care with an individual's personalized care needs.

The NIH-funded research will be conducted in collaboration with David Grabowski, Ph.D., Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a nationally recognized expert in long-term care, post-acute care, and health policy for aging populations. "For too long, our long-term care system has relied on large, institutional settings that often fail to meet the personal needs of residents. My prior research has shown the value of smaller, resident-centered models that prioritize quality of life alongside clinical safety. I am excited to work with Homecare Hub on this research to test whether community-based, tech-enabled care offers a high-value, scalable alternative to traditional nursing homes." Chelsey Wilks, Ph.D., a prolific Harvard trained data scientist with experience at Meta and various early-stage health tech companies, also joined the team to help lead the study.

The award supports Homecare Hub's broader mission to integrate technology-enabled community-based care models into real-world health systems and payer environments. The study findings will inform policymakers, providers, and health systems seeking sustainable solutions for long-term care delivery with clinically complex adults.

For the study, Homecare Hub has begun recruiting 10 health systems across the country who experience challenges discharging complex patients. Health systems can be large or small, and will receive Homecare Hub support and track outcomes data. Individuals from prospective hospitals can complete this Interest Form to learn more.

About Homecare Hub
Homecare Hub accelerates the creation of high-quality, small 2-12 person co-living residential care homes. They create new post-acute and long-term care capacity on-demand for communities and healthcare systems. Homecare Hub's mission is to provide high-quality, affordable alternatives to traditional institutional care, improving quality of life for aging and medically complex populations.

SOURCE Homecare Hub US Inc.