Caregiver Videos: Parkinson’s At Home

Last month, we introduced the Care Giver Video Resource Center, our YouTube series for family care providers about home care and home care agencies.

In the sixth video in the series, Melanie Lewis & Jennifer St. Onge of Guardian Angels Senior Services discuss the challenges Parkinson’s Disease poses for family care providers and answer questions about what a home care agency can do to help.

To view the full series, visit our YouTube channel.  To access library of hundreds of care giver resources on a variety of subjects, visit www.eldercareskills.org, who produced the videos with us.

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Guest Post: The Way Toward Effective Change: Go See and Respectfully Ask Why

By Jann Ahern, Executive Director South Shore VNA

whyLeading a home care agency  in today’s changing healthcare environment is challenging to say the least!   We must daily  juggle the needs of patients, families, employees, referral sources, insurance companies, and regulatory agencies.  With only so many hours on in a day,  we jump to the operational solution that is the quickest or most obvious.  Many times we are right, but some of the solutions we put in place are not always implemented effectively and are not sustained.  Why?

In our rush to solve a problem so that we can move on to the next one, we often neglect some important fact finding.  Experience shows us that there is no better way to get to the root of a problem than to go see for yourself what is actually happening. You need to ask –  in person  – of the people who do the work or who benefit from the work:   what works and what does not.   And then you need to go that next step: respectfully ask how they would do it better.

For a leader, this can be  an eye-opening experience.  What you may believe is working effectively and efficiently is often bogged down in work- arounds to an ineffective process.  The best solutions can come from the people who are actually doing the work or from people who are the recipient of your product/care.  Asking them why, rather than what forces people to think deep and to get to the root of an issue or problem

An added plus: buy in and adherence to a change can be more easily achieved if the people who do the work or who benefit from the work were the initiators of the solution.  It is a win for your entire organization.

To all good leaders and managers, I say:  get out of the office and go see what the issue is.  And respectfully ask the powerful question:  “why?”

Nominations Open For Innovation Showcase

Our Time To Shine

The Alliance will be honoring our members’ best and brightest again at our annual Innovations Showcase & Star Awards program on April 17th, at the fabulous Revere Hotel in Boston.

Nominations in all categories are open through February 26.  Don’t miss this opportunity to have your best programs and colleagues publicly recognized!

Nomination Categories

Innovation Showcase

  • Patient Care and Services
  • Operations Management/Streamlining
  • Community Outreach or Advocacy
  • Cross-Continuum Collaboration
  • Human Resources/Staff Education

Star Awards

  • Clinician of the Year
  • Aide of the Year
  • Manager of the Year
  • Legislator of the Year
  • Physician of the Year
  • Home Care Champion

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Free Webinar on Establishing a Palliative Care Program

The Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association (HHFMA) will hold a free webinar: Palliative Care: A Business Analysis of the Pros and Cons of Establishing a Palliative Care Program. Presented by Daniel Maison, MD, Medical Director, and Larry Oberst, CPA, CFO, both of Spectrum Health Palliative Care Program.

Friday, Feb. 15, 2013
3:00 to 4:00 PM EST
Program Description:

Does your organization think about starting a palliative care program? What are palliative care services and where are these programs delivered? What are the factors to consider when developing a palliative care program? This program covers all of those bases and more to help  decide whether to start a palliative care program.

Webinar Objectives:

  1. Define what it takes to make a case for palliative care services;

  2. Identify how palliative care programs are delivered and financed; and

  3. Identify when palliative care programs should be integrated with home health and other providers.

To Register- Click Here

(If you cannot attend live, the webinar will be recorded and archived on the HHFMA website)

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February ODF

The next Home Health, Hospice & Durable Medical Equipment  Open Door Forum is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, 2013 from 2:00pm – 3:00pm, ET.  To participate by phone, dial 1-800-837-1935; Conference ID: 78869441. The agenda will be posted before the call on the ODF Website

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MOLST Technical Assistance Calls Planned for Certified Home Health Agencies

The Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) process and medical order form were developed to ensure that persons with advanced illness will have their decisions regarding life-sustaining treatments known, communicated and honored across Massachusetts.  Health care institutions throughout the Commonwealth are currently in various stages of implementing the use of MOLST with suitable patients.

In order to assist certified home health agencies to prepare for MOLST, the MOLST Team is scheduling technical assistance calls on the following dates:

  • February 25, from 1:00 – 2:00pm
  • March 18, from 12:00 – 1:00 pm

You may register for one of these calls by going to the MOLST website (www.MOLST-MA.org).  There you’ll also learn about the steps involved in MOLST implementation, and will find many tools for preparing your home care agency for the use of MOLST with patients.

The one-hour technical assistance conference call will provide participants with an opportunity to ask questions about MOLST, clarify concerns, and share with other callers whatever progress you’ve already made with MOLST implementation at your agency.

Registrants are strongly encouraged to review the MOLST Implementation Training available on line at http://www.molst-ma.org/molst-training-line and to download the Implementation Toolkit available at http://www.molst-ma.org/tool-kit-implementing-molst-institutions before participating in the conference call.

In order to have MOLST in place at your agency by the end of this year, now is the time to begin the implementation process.  Take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about MOLST, and register for an upcoming MOLST technical assistance call for certified home health agencies!

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ICD-10: Take Readiness Survey

CMS and the Workgroup on Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) are conducting a survey on healthcare industry readiness for ICD-10. The purpose of the survey is to closely track industry progress in order to identify areas where additional focus may be needed. The survey is open through Wednesday, February 20, 2013 and available to any individual associated with health care organizations

The online survey, located at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WEDISurveyICD-10, will be used by WEDI and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to evaluate challenges and identify areas in need of additional education and assistance. This is a great opportunity to provide input about your readiness for the ICD-10 transition in 2014.

WEDI’s Survey on Industry Progress Now Open

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is conducting its latest online ICD-10 Industry Progress Survey. The survey will help CMS and WEDI:

  • Measure the health care industry’s ICD-10 progress
  • Evaluate challenges and identify areas where industry needs more education and assistance

The survey is open to all individuals associated with health care organizations, including vendors, health plans, providers, and payers.

Before taking the online survey, please scroll to the link at the end of the WEDI survey press release to preview the questions. The press release also includes a link to the online survey form.

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Invitation to Comment on QIO Changes

CMS’s Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) is inviting providers to offer input on plans for redesigning the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program. By law, the mission of the QIO Program is to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and quality of services delivered to Medicare beneficiaries. QIOs convene providers, practitioners, and patients to build and share knowledge, spread best practices, and achieve wide-scale improvements in patient care, increases in population health, and decreases in health care costs.

CMS has just released the slides from the January 24th Special Open Door Forum, Future Development of the QIO: Getting Your Feedback.  This invitation to provide comments on the future development of the QIO is an excellent opportunity for home health agencies to request the support and resources they deserve in the QIO program. Home health has been left out of the last two Scope of Work (SOW) plans, which focused on hospital and skilled nursing facilities. The 8th SOW was the last time the QIO focused on home health.

Home health agencies should write to CMS and advise them of ways that QIOs can provide home care with guidance and tools to effectively care for the millions of Medicare beneficiaries they serve, help them learn to comply with their treatment regimens, trouble shoot  potential complications, and avoid costly emergent care and institutional services, as well as expand their involvement in preventative services,

Please share your comments and ideas on the role Quality Improvement Organizations can play in home health.  Submit your comments to OCSQBox@cms.hhs.gov by Friday, February 8th at 5:00 p.m. ET

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NAHC Holding Virtual Lobby Day on Feb 6

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is holding a virtual lobby day for its members on Wednesday, February 6 to continue the mission to keep issues important to home health on the minds of elected leaders. Virtual lobby days are essentially using phone calls and emails to advocate for important issues without traveling to the nation’s capital.

The virtual lobby day is centered around potential co-pays to Medicare home health services, which remain on the table as deficit talks continue. There have been a range of proposals since recent federal budget deficit talks began. They include a uniform 20 percent copay for all Medicare services, which NAHC estimates would amount to as much as $600 to access a Medicare episode of home health services. Other proposals include one by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) of $150 per Medicare episode and another from President Obama in a past year’s budget blueprint that was $100 per episode, but not preceded by a hospital or nursing home stay and beginning in 2017 for newly eligible Medicare beneficiaries.

NAHC members can help fight these proposals by sending a message using the NAHC Legislative Action Network (LAN). Click here for a sample message opposing home health copays and payment cuts. The message will be more impactful if you personalize it with your background and experience and describe the harm that copays and payment cuts will cause patients and providers in your state and district. For hospice messages, click here and here.

You may also deliver the message by phone. You may obtain contact information here: Contact Your Elected Officials. When calling, ask the receptionist to connect you with the staffer who handles health care issues. For talking points on home health copays, go here; for payment cuts, go here. For hospice, go here and here.

For those who are not members of NAHC, you can still contact your US Senators and Representatives through their respective websites. If you need assistance finding who represents you, go to www.wheredoivotema.com.

NAHC also hosts a facebook page called “No Sick Tax” that is meant to bring advocates and home care agencies together around the issue of fighting copays.

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New Edits on Hospice Claims

Recently, CMS released Change Request (CR) 8142 – Hospice Monthly Billing Requirement, effective date of change- July 1, 2013. The CR instructs Medicare contractors to implement a system edit to return hospice claims to the provider when there is more than one hospice claim per month per beneficiary. The only exception to this requirement is in the case of the beneficiary being discharged or revoking the benefit and then later re-electing the benefit during the same month.

Medicare contractors will also implement a system edit when the provider submits claims that span more than one calendar month.  Any hospice claim spanning multiple months will be returned to the provider for correction.

This is not new policy but is a new enforcement.  After July 1, 2013 claims not in compliance with the monthly billing requirement will be returned to providers.  A corresponding MedLearn Matters article is expected to be posted in the near future.

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