It depends on the rewrite rule, but yes, you can get it to work as intended.
The following rewrite rule:
RewriteRule /home /index.php?page_name=home
Will simply cause requests to /home to execute index.php with $_GET['page_name']
equal to "home".
Depending on the complexity of your site, however, it may be preferable to use a more generic rewrite rule, such as:
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ index.php/$1
Then you would query $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] to see if it contained "home". This will play nicely with other $_GET parameters that may be passed in.