Author: James Fuccione

William Ditto, Director of Disability Services for New Jersey’s Department of Human Services, presented the progress of his state’s “nurse delegation” pilot program at a legislative briefing hosted by the Home Care Alliance.

The briefing centered around S.860, An Act Relative to Home Health Aides, which would allow nurses to delegate the administration of certain medications to home health aides in the home setting.

For more info on New Jersey’s pilot program, see the William Ditto Presentation.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

In an executive session, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing reported out S.860, An Act Relative to Home Health Aides favorably. It is not yet determined where the legislation will progress to, but the proposal is still very much alive and moving forward. Stay tuned on how to keep the momentum going!

The Home Care Alliance’s legislative briefing on the bill was well attended by HCA members, representatives from supporting organizations and legislative staff.

Senator Richard Moore, the legislation’s sponsor, welcomed attendees and presented an overview of the issue of “nurse delegation” as seen from his perspective as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. His remarks are available on HCA’s YouTube page.

HCA Executive Director Patricia Kelleher continued on Senator Moore’s thoughts and introduced Margo Bourne from the VNA of Boston who spoke about a specific patient case where nurse delegation would be a huge benefit. Rigney Cunningham from the Hospice and Palliative Care Federation of MA also presented the hospice side of nurse delegation and how removing the barrier to allow aides to administer certain medications would mean better delivery of hospice services.

The featured speaker for the event was William Ditto, Director of Disability Services for New Jersey’s Department of Human Services. New Jersey is running a Nurse Delegation Pilot Program and he spoke about some of the successes, progress and speed bumps that have been a part of that experience.  A few thoughts from Mr. Ditto are also available on HCA’s YouTube page.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

With all the changes through the process, it was difficult at times to keep up with the provisions of national health reform that applied to home health and hospice.

Luckily, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) has released the key provisions for both home health care and hospice, and included the general employer requirements.

For more information, see HCA’s other blog posts on what the house passed and the House “reconciliation” summary, or type “health reform” into the blog’s search feature.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

With a historic vote set for this weekend where the US House of Representative will vote on the Senate’s health reform proposal, there will again be changes to what may eventually be the final package.

In addition, there will be a House supplement or reconciliation bill with provisions from the House proposal. For more information, see the House Committee on Rules Section-by-Section summary of The Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

The Home Care Alliance Board of Directors approved an official position for the organization on Accountable Care Organizations, including guiding principles that the home care industry would like to see included as payment reform moves closer to a reality.

To support a care model that is appropriately inclusive of a robust community health care network, the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts believes that the Accountable Care Organization design must:

•    Recognize the value of true clinical integration between acute and post acute care

•    Consider carefully the current composition of the home health care industry, their unique patterns of care delivery  and their dual role as providers of both post acute services and (Medicaid) long term care, and

•    Include in the infrastructure design some explicit direction on the use of home health services that supports inclusion of existing quality providers and avoids unintentional development by ACOs of duplicative community care services.

Download the ACO position document for more information and contact the Alliance with any questions or comments.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.