December 7, 2023

Every day our staff is working to address a compelling need — over 5.9 million homebound and medically complex patients cannot access the care they need from the comfort of their homes. We believe the future of healthcare is in the home, and we rely on philanthropy to help us do the following:

• Educate healthcare professionals through tools and tip sheets, online courses, workshops, webinars, and a hotline supported by providers, practice management experts, and nationally certified coders.

HCCI President Julie Sacks

• Support the onboarding, training, and development of every member of a house call team.

• Offer affordable consulting solutions to help providers build and grow a thriving home care practice.

• Introduce new ways for practices to expand their reach and demonstrate their quality using data analytics tools specifically designed for home-based care organizations. 

Thanks to a generous donor, all donations made between now and December 31, 2023, up to $50,000, will be matched! We invite you to join our mission of making house calls available to more of those who need them by doubling your impact with a tax-deductible contribution before December 31. Increasing access to house call programs is easy ─ give online, contact our Development Team, or mail contributions to:

Home Centered Care Institute

1900 E. Golf Road, Suite 950 (please note our new suite number )

Schaumburg, IL 60173

Your support is key to turning our vision for home-based healthcare into reality. If you or a loved one needed primary healthcare but couldn’t get to it, wouldn’t you like to know that care could come to you?

Approximately 260,000 individuals in Illinois are homebound, with only 26% of these receiving home-based primary care (HBPC). The unmet needs in Illinois are great; it’s estimated that nearly 200,000 residents need home-based primary care but are not currently receiving it. The Illinois House Call Project (ILHCP) is a three-year project consisting of 17 medical practices with the goal to collectively enroll and serve 3,000 new homebound or home-limited people in their homes by 2024. To date, the project’s participants have enrolled over 2,100 patients, well on their way to exceeding the goal. Plus, HCCI is now looking to launch the second cohort of practices in early 2024.

HCCI spoke with three of the ILHCP Champions about what they saw as the beneficial aspects of house calls for their patients. April Odom, APRN, FNP-BBC, remarked that, “having dedicated time with the provider is very important — a lot of times in the office a patient may not get the whole hour with the provider.” Alicia Bobak, FNP-C, WCC, CSWD-C, said, “patients do not have to go out of their home, which may be difficult. We provide that extra step and access to care.” Lastly, Letasha Lewis, APRN, FNP, remarked on the familial side, saying that she can "work with patients’ families to answer questions a lot faster than if they had to call the office and wait for a call back."

Key projects like the Illinois House Call Project are made possible by donors like you.

We would love to hear why house call programs are important to you.

• Share your story about why house calls are important to you here (and receive a free “I Heart House Calls” mug).

• Make an impactful donation to HCCI, or become an HCCInsider.

• Learn more about the Illinois House Call Project.

• Hear from the Illinois House Call Project providers here.

• Be considered for early access to our ILHCP Cohort 2, nominate a deserving practice, and share the Cohort 2 information.

HCCI welcomed a new staff member, and new role, this month. We are excited to welcome Whitney Plunkett as HCCI’s Development Director.

With nearly two decades of work experience spanning leadership, education, and sales, Whitney brings a well-rounded background in nonprofit fundraising to HCCI. In her role as Development Director at HCCI, Whitney supports HCCI’s mission of increasing access to home-based primary care (HBPC) by fostering donor relationships and exploring new funding opportunities.

Most recently, Whitney served as Director of Development at the American Heart Association where she directed the organization’s giving program and worked to cultivate partnerships with individual donors and organizations at the local level.

Development Director Whitney Plunkett

Previously, she was the Youth Market Director at the American Heart Association where she implemented a variety of effective fundraising strategies within the K-12 market. Whitney earned a Bachelor of Mass Communication in Public Relations and Business and Organizational Communication at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia and holds a Master of Arts in Special Education from Northeastern Illinois University.

Why Whitney Believes in HCCI’s Mission and Believes You Should, Too



Whitney sees HCCI in a “season of growth” and, like so many Americans, and so many around the world, her family was recently faced with the tough task of finding home-based care for a loved one. That is why HCCI’s mission especially resonates with her. “Many times, people don’t think about house call programs or in-home care until they are confronted with an emergency, which is what happened with my family,” said Plunkett. “From the caregiver lens, we were quickly thrown into a situation that required us to learn about home-based care, especially primary care options, when it had not previously been a consideration. During this time, it was apparent that not only is there a need for more house call programs nationally, but there are also disparities in the access to quality healthcare, which is something I had worked with in my previous role.”

When asked why HCCI’s mission should matter to donors, Whitney answered, “It is likely that each person will be faced with deciding how they or a loved one prefer to be cared for as they age or experience a chronic condition requiring them to be homebound. Instead of it being an after-thought, we can, instead, continue to proactively grow house call programs nationally and allow individuals to receive high-quality care in a manner that supports them.”