Category: Advocacy

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.

Alliance Comments on PPS Rules

The Alliance submitted comments to CMS on September 28 regarding the proposed PPS rate update for 2010.  In the comments, the Alliance recommended that CMS delay OASIS-C implementation and the new HHCAHPS to give agencies additional time to prepare for these changes.  We also recommended that CMS rely on targeted fraud enforcement activities rather than across-the-board cuts to weed out abusive providers.  See our comments here.

Thanks to the members of the Alliance’s Clinical Directors, Reimbursement, and QI Committees for their assistance in developing our comments.

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Alliance Weighs in on Falls Prevention Legislation

The Joint Committee on Elder Affairs held a public hearing at the State House on Wednesday, September 23 and among the bills taken up were proposals relating to falls prevention among older adults.

Lisa O’Loughlin, an independent community nurse and falls prevention advocate, presented testimony supporting the falls prevention bill,  Senate Bill 318, on behalf of the Home Care Alliance. You can view that testimony by clicking here. Gail Mello, Rehabilitation Director for the Brockton Visiting Nurse Association, also presented testimony in which she stressed the urgency of passing the bill using a story of a patient who suffered a fall and is now in serious condition.

The Alliance, as a member of the state’s Falls Prevention Awareness Coalition, co-sponsored and helped host Falls Prevention Awareness Day at the State House on September 22. The Alliance’s Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Helen Siegel spoke to a crowd of seniors and falls awareness advocates in the Great Hall along with Department of Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach, State Senator and co-chair of the Elder Affairs Committee Patricia Jehlen, and Assistant Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs Ruth Palombo.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

New Issues of Update, Private Eye Available

Current issues of our members-only publications are available on our our Newsletter archive.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Falls Prevention Awareness Day Event to be Held Sept. 22

The Home Care Alliance, as part of the Massachusetts Falls Prevention Coalition, is co-hosting the third annual Falls Prevention Awareness Day in the Great Hall of the Massachusetts State House from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm on September 22.

Several state elected officials and elders advocates will speak and many more will attend. Click here to see a flyer for the event. For more information on state efforts to prevent accidental falls among the elderly, click here.

The event also coincides with a public hearing in front of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, which will be held the next day (Sept. 23) at 10:00 am in hearing room B-1 of the State House. The Alliance is looking for members who are interested in testifying on behalf of Senate Bills 317 and 318, which deal with a number of initiatives from education to the intensifying of services that will help reduce falls.

If any are interested in submitting written or verbal testimony in support of Falls Prevention legislation, please contact James Fuccione at the Alliance.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Hampshire Daily Gazette: Home Health Care Saves Money, Serves People Well

The Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA) published a letter to the editor written and submitted by Jeanne Ryan who is the Executive Director of the VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickenson.

The letter, which was published on July 28, urges advocacy on behalf of home health given the proposed cuts to Medicare reimbursement. The Gazette website requires a subscription so a link is not available, but the letter is posted below.

To the Editor:

Home health has become an increasingly important part of our health care system. The kinds of highly skilled and often technically complex services that our nation’s home health agencies provide have enabled millions of our most frail and vulnerable seniors and disabled citizens to avoid hospitals and nursing homes. By preventing such institutional care, home health services save Medicare millions of dollars each year. More importantly, they enable individuals to stay just where they want to be – in the comfort and security of their own homes.

I am writing to urge our local citizens to oppose further cuts in Medicare home health payments. The Administration’s FY 2010 budget includes a proposal to cut Medicare home health payments by $13.16 billion over five years. This would come on top of additional administrative cuts in payment rates of$7.59 billion promulgated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) over the period from 2008 through 2011.If these new cuts are implemented, nearly two-thirds of America’s home health agencies will have negative results and Medicare patients in large sections of the country will be at risk of losing home health services.

The Medicare home health benefit has already taken a larger hit in spending cuts over the past ten years than any other Medicare benefit. In fact, home health as a share of Medicare spending has dropped from 8.7 percent in 1997 to 3.6 percent today, and is projected to decline to 3 percent of Medicare spending by 2016.

Further deep cuts in home health spending will also place the home care delivery system at significant risk. This is particularly true at a time when the cost of providing highly skilled care in the home is increasing. I urge you to join the VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson in opposing any further cuts to homecare Medicare reimbursement by call or writing Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy.

Sincerely,
Jeanne M. Ryan, MA, OTR, CHCE, COS-C
Executive Director
VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson

If you’re interested in sending a message to your federal legislators, please click here, fill out your contact info and hit “send,” which will send off a pre-written email. You can view the email by simply scrolling down on the link above.

You can also join our petition drive by clicking here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Petition to Save Home Health

The Home Care Alliance is joining a national initiative to send a petition to Congress in order to stop proposed cuts to home health within the national health care reform debate.

You can help us speak up for the patients who rely on home health as well as the workers who administer the much-needed care by clicking here and printing our petition. Whether you are circulating the petition among coworkers, patients, family or friends, you can also print our petition cover sheet to provide more information.

Please see the cover sheet and pass the petition around. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is hoping to have one million signatures by September 15 for their March on Washington, so we appreciate any and all signatures that we can gather by then. The petition drive will continue on after that date for anyone interested in carrying on the effort.

Please fax us back your petition with signatures BY SEPTEMBER 14 at 617-426-0509, if you want the signatures to count for the NAHC March on Washington. If you’re interested in getting more signatures after that, please let us know. One copy will be sent to NAHC and the a second copy will be sent to your congressional representative.

If you have any questions, contact the Alliance at 617-482-8830.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Federal Legislators Hold Town Hall Meetings

US Senator John Kerry will host a town hall-style meeting tonight (Sept. 2) from 7:30 to 9:00 pm in the Somerville High School Auditorium. Click here to see Kerry’s announcement from his website, which states that the issues discussed will not be limited to health care.

“With so much interest in the health care debate, we’re sure there will be many questions on that, but you are welcome to ask about any issue you would like,” the announcement explains.

Also this week, Congressman Stephen Lynch will hold his own town hall meeting exclusively on health care. That event will take place on Thursday Sept. 3 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Curry College. Click here for more information on the Congressman’s forum.

If you are planning to attend and would like talking points from the stance of the home health industry, click here. Anyone interested in going to either town hall event are strongly encouraged to show up early as seating for both is first come, first served.

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CORI Information Q and A: September 2nd

For Home Care Alliance members with questions or concerns regarding CORI processing delays, the state’s Executive Office of Health an Human Services will be holding a conference call with a question and answer session from 3:00 – 4:30pm on Wednesday, September 2.

To register for the session, email “EOHHSCORIquestions@state.ma.us” and a response will ensue with instructions on how to join the call. EOHHS posted a flier with more information on the session, which can be viewed by clicking here. The flier also has a link to the Health and Human Services website where CORI policies and other useful documents are posted.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Alliance, MassAging Send Letter to Health IT Council

The Home Care Alliance of MA and MassAging sent a joint letter to the Health IT Council and State Senator Richard Moore in an effort to ensure that the benefits of a “health information exchange extend to patients receiving home health and other long-term care services.”

The letter, which can be viewed by clicking here, notes that patients in home health and long-term care settings tend to have multiple health issues and frequently transition between providers.  The letter states that for this reason, among others, home health and long term care patients would benefit greatly from an electronic health information exchange.

To learn more about the state’s efforts on electronic medical records and other e-health initiatives, visit the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s website by clicking here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.