Author: Pat Kelleher

Pat Kelleher is Executive Director of the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts.

Alliance Members Win Globe Award

Alliance members Community Nurse and Hospice Care, Inc of Fairhaven and Aviv Centers For Living were named to the Boston Globe’s list of  “Top 100 Places to Work” in Massachusetts.  Award winners were selected from 1,000 potential employers, 86,000 employee surveys and a measurement process that examined direction, management, working conditions, pay and benefits,  and career opportunities.  Aviv Centers, located in Swampscott,  provides a continuum of long term care services that includes private home care services.  Community  Nurse provides home health services across Southeastern Mass.  Also included were home care parent companies Winchester Hospital,  Hallmark Health Systems and Partners Health Care and Alliance Allied members Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Benchmark Assisted Living.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Home Health Agency is Finalist for BCBS of MA Quality Award

Visiting Nurse Association of Middlesex-East and Visiting Nurse Hospice was honored as a finalist  for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ Annual Health Care Excellence Award.  The VNA was recognized for reducing its re-hospitalization rate from 29% to 17% within two years – the lowest in the state – despite caring for an aging population that increasingly struggles with chronic conditions such as stroke, diabetes, emphysema, heart disease, and hypertension. This accomplishment has significantly reduced health care costs while improving the quality of life for their patients.

Also recognized as a finalist was EMC Corporation, an international leader in Information Infrastructure solutions.   EMC was recognized for its Partners in Health program, which successfully engaged its workforce and their families in learning how individual behaviors, choices and attitudes influence overall health and  health care expenditures, waste and outcomes.

This year’s award winner was Health & Education Services, Inc. (HES), a community-based behavioral health care network in northeastern Massachusetts. HEIS was selected for exceptional achievement in improving the safety and effectiveness of health care in Massachusetts through its Health Access and Integration Program (HAIP).

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Health Care Reform Breakfast, Part III

Join other Alliance members, along with Tim Rowan, editor of Home Care Technology Report and representatives of the Massachusets eHealth Collaborative and Information Technology Committee for a discussion of the new federal and state goals around electronic health records, and other health IT issues of interest to post acute and long term care providers.  This event is on November 5th at the Radission Hotel in Boston and it is free; but preregistration is required.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

The Medical Home and Home Care

State and federal policy maker support for more patient-centered and enhanced primary care in the form of a “medical home” or “health home” (according to Senate Finance Committee)  makes it highly likely that more Massachusetts practices will move to this model in 2010.

As a member of the state Medical Home Coordinating Council, the Home Care Alliance has crafted a white paper on ways that home care agencies might engage and support physician practices converting to PCMHs.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

EDIT:  The link to the White Paper is now fixed.

Payment Reform In Massachusetts Moves Forward

This month, researchers from the RAND Corporation presented a policy brief, Controlling Health Care Spending in Massachusetts, to the state’s Health Care Quality And Cost Council (HCQCC).  Massachusetts’  Division of Health Care Finance and Policy commissioned RAND to develop a menu of potential cost containment strategies. The report provides analysis of 12 possible interventions that the researchers conclude have the most promise to cut spending in Massachusetts. More than 75 broad approaches were initially considered.

Five of the top six approaches in the RAND report deal with health care payment and are consistent with the recommendation by the state’s Special Commission on the Health Care Payment Reform to move away from a predominantly fee-for-service system. Included are a recommendation and several scenarios around implementing bundled payments as a way to incentivize  better coordinated care. The model looks at bundled payments for certain hospital conditions for adults aged 18- 64. Also included in the model are major changes in payments to Academic Medical Centers, expanded Health Information Technology, and reduction of resource use at end of life.

The HCQCC is expected to begin looking at various timelines for implementing these recommendations in September.

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