The Alliance is pleased to welcome its newest member, Brooksby Village Home Support, a private duty agency located in Peabody, Massachusetts.
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Category: News & Media
HCA Welcomes New Member: Visiting Angels of Chelmsford
The Alliance is pleased to welcome its newest member, Visiting Angels of Chelmsford, a private duty agency located in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
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HCA Welcomes New Member: Bring Care Home
The Alliance is pleased to welcome its newest member, Bring Care Home, a private duty agency located in Topsfield, Massachusetts.
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Medicare Ruling Puts Home Health Patients at Risk
A provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act published recently by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) states that, as of July 6th, home health agencies will be prohibited from submitting claims for reimbursement from physicians who have not enrolled in a new online system.
Failure to register in the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System, or PECOS, would also block these physicians, who can still see Medicare patients, from referring new patients for Medicare-covered home health services.
At issue is that CMS has not adequately educated physicians about this new requirement. The result is that as many as 50% of physicians in Massachusetts (NAHC estimates 20-40 percent nationally) have not registered on PECOS. Moreover, the registration and approval process can take several weeks, so even if physicians were to register immediately, their status would not be approved by the July 6 deadline.
HCA, along with the VNA of Boston and other agencies and organizations are urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Congress to delay implementation of the rule until such time as physicians have ample time to enroll and also to hold harmless the home health providers that will suffer from the abrupt transition.
What to do:
- NAHC has provided background in its June 22 newsletter and a message is available in HCA’s Legislative Action Center (SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE THE MESSAGE: “DELAY PHYSICIAN ENROLLMENT REQUIREMENT AND HOLD HOME HEALTH AGENCIES HARMLESS”)
- See HCA’s “Notice for Physicians” for home health and home care agencies.
- For more information, see a blurb from the Massachusetts Medical Society’s recent newsletter and the website of the American Medical Association.
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HCA Welcomes New Member: Careproviders of Blackstone Valley
The Alliance is pleased to welcome its newest member, Careproviders of Blackstone Valley, LLC, a private duty agency located in Whitinsville, Massachusetts.
Search for a home care provider by town and/or service, visit our interactive Provider Search.
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HCA Welcomes 170th Member: Care From The Heart
The Alliance is pleased to welcome it’s 170th member, Care…From the Heart, a private duty agency located in Mashpee, Massachusetts.
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Chronic Care Management And Home Care
Yesterday more than 40 Alliance members participated in a workshop on making the business care for home care to be at the enter of efforts to introduce better management of chronic illness to the US health care system. Beth Hennessey of Baptist Home Care provided the agency template for matching the core competencies of home care to the policy and programmatic changes that are envisioned in federal health care insurance and delivery system reform.
One take away message is that Massachusetts may see opportunities in this area even quicker than the rest of the country as this state is moving into Phase II of reform (system realignment) while most other states are still on Phase I (universal coverage). An immediate challenge to home care to deliver services in a new and different way may well present itself when the state releases its RFP – this spring or summer – for a broad Medical Home pilot.
All home care agencies should be familiar with the state’s plans – as described in their Patient Centered Medical Home Framework for Design and Implementation. Help physicians to see how a new home care partnership can make a medical home work.
– Pat Kelleher
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What’s Next for Health Care Reform in Massachusetts?
Three days of hearings by the Mass Division of Health Care Finance & Policy (DHCFP) on Health Care Cost Trends in Massachusetts started with a bang as the Attorney General of Massachusetts Martha Coakley released and testified on a report from her office detailing how clout and market share and not quality contribute to wide variation in reimbursement and drive prices up in Massachusetts.
Also being considered and discussed by state officials are data on payment variation submitted by insurers – such as these from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which also appeared in the Boston Globe.
At stake in the discussions are some very immediate proposals by the Governor to expand the authority of the state’s Division of Insurance to approve or deny health insurance premium increases. Longer term, these hearings are about degree of regulatory oversight of premium and rate setting, urgency and viability of global payments and/or systemic payment reform and ultimately, perhaps, the success or failure of the Massachusetts universal health insurance law.
For those who are interested in what may shape health care reform in Massachusetts for the near future, the event is available through Live Streaming: http://vpc.umb.edu:8080/ramgen/broadcast/live.rm
Or view the powerpoint presentations as they are posted at DHCFP website.
Otherwise stay tuned.
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2010 Home Care STAR Awards
There are too few opportunities to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes who make such an incredible difference in the lives of their patients and clients. A Home Care STAR Award brings some well-deserved recognition for both the individual and the agency they work for. To nominate a colleague via printable form or electronically, visit or Home Care STAR Awards page on the Alliance’s website.
Award Categories include:
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This year we are inviting clients, families, physicians, and case managers to tell us about the home care stars who have touched your lives. Winners will be announced at the Alliance’s 2010 Annual Meeting on Wednesday, June 9, 2010, at the Sturbridge Host Hotel; nominations are due by April 16, 2010.
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MA Home Health Agencies Excel in Medicare Demo Project
As a result of their efforts to achieve measurable improvement goals in patient health and quality of life, eighteen Massachusetts home health agencies received a share of a federal performance pool of $15.4 million, which is also the national Medicare savings attained through the project.
For more information, see the Alliance’s press release.
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