This paper describes different ways of allocating funds to home care services in municipalities based on formula funding. The overall objective in this paper is to discuss whether a new model of funding fits the change in the services home care delivers. There has been a change from predominantly compensating help to rehabilitation in home care services, but the model of funding has not changed. The change in home care services has taken place both as a response to the demographic development with a growing number of elderly people and fewer in the workforce and because of the growing awareness of the importance of being able to master one’s own life as a vital part of what constitutes a good life. The aim is to find a model of funding that gives home care incentives to achieve results with rehabilitation. The current model of funding primarily supports the old way of delivering home care.

I describe how funding and controlling as well as rehabilitation is currently organized in Thisted Municipality and discuss 4 new alternative models of funding from the perspectives of the politicians, the recipients and the employees.

Based on the discussion I find that a model of funding with less case payments and more fixed budgets allocated to home care for rehabilitation is to be preferred. This aligns the best professional solution with the economic incentives in a better way than our current model. But one of the primary challenges we need to address before implementing a new model of funding is better access to data to be able to assess the correct funding. This is something we work to obtain.

The new model of funding has potential to support rehabilitation even better if it is supplemented with organizational changes and risk assessment.