A new survey from the Massachusetts Medical Society shows most doctors believe home health care services improve health care quality and reduce costs, but many people can’t access them due to administrative burdens, reimbursement issues and other barriers.

The survey, conducted with the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, found more than 89 percent of responding physicians believe home health services can reduce inpatient hospital admissions, 67 percent say remote monitoring services can reduce costs, 63 percent say they can reduce emergency room visits, and 41 percent believe they can reduce overall costs.

This is one of the few times a survey has looked at doctors’ perceptions and use of home health services such as skilled nursing care, physical and occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, and medical social services provided in the home.

More than 150,000 Massachusetts residents are served by home care services through Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, including 100,000 senior citizens on Medicare, according to the alliance, and many more get services for which they pay directly.

The alliance contends that there is not an adequate supply of those services in the state.

“This survey validates the essential role of home health services in both post-hospital and chronic care,” said Pat Kelleher, executive director of the alliance, in a news release. “As our state looks at system redesign and cost efficiency, the survey shows that strengthening existing relationships between physician and home health care would be more promising than reinventing new models of care coordination.”

Dr. Mario Motta, president of the Medical Society, said the low cost and benefits of health care are a “winning formula” that make the survey findings “critical to developing future health policy,” given reform efforts’ focus on quality and cost savings.

“With a rapidly aging population,” he said, “more seniors will rely heavily on health care services, and many will have chronic conditions. Those factors will add to already-soaring health costs. As physicians see it, greater use of home services can ease costs without compromising quality of care.”

The main advantages of home care cited by doctors were better compliance with the patient’s care plan (78 percent), reduced stress on caregivers (73 percent), improved coordination of care (65 percent), and fewer visits to emergency departments (63 percent). Nearly all – 97 percent – 97 percent – said the services help them better manage their patients’ care at home.

However, 54 percent of doctors said paperwork kept them from using these services for their patients, and 40 percent said reimbursement issues were a barrier. The latter can be “readily fixed,” however, the Medical Society said, because two-thirds of the doctors who cited reimbursement issues didn’t know they could submit charges to Medicare.

The survey found primary care doctors are far likelier to use home care for chronic disease management – 64 percent, compared with 38 percent of specialists. Similarly, while 82 percent of primary care doctors use home care for hospice and palliative care, only 46 percent of specialists reported doing so.

The survey was conducted by mail from October to November of last year. The full report is available at www.massmed.org/HomeSurvey09 .