Continuing on an article written on how cash-strapped states are cutting home care services, the “New Old Age” blog of the NY Times highlighted what home care and home health advocates have been telling state and federal elected officials for years: People prefer to live at home rather than an institutional facility, which costs more taxpayer money anyway.
To read the New Old Age blog on home care cuts, click here.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
The Home Care Alliance’s state bill on nurse delegation, known as S.860, An Act Relative to Home Health Aides, is moving from one House committee to another on its way to what will hopefully be a vote before the full 160-member House of Representatives.
The legislation has moved to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading and we still need your help in advocating. Send a message from our Legislative Action network (top message) today!
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is planning a “virtual lobby day” on July 22 in an effort to boost cosponsors for the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act (S.2814, H.R.4993). The legislation would allow Nurse Practitioners (NP’s), Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Physician Assistants (PA’s) to certify and make changes to home health care plans.
The House version has 80 cosponsors and the lead sponsors, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) and Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC), are seeking to get that number up to 100 prior to the August recess.
Click here and enter your information to find your federal legislators and their contact information. To access the text of the House bill and a list of House cosponsors, click here. To see the text of the Senate bill and a list of Senate cosponsors, click here.
A message is also available on the Legislative Action Network (second to last prepared message) for those looking to email and not call.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.com.
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York has come up with a checklist for making homes safer for Alzheimer and dementia patients, which was highlighted in “The New Old Age: Caring and Coping” blog in the NY Times.
According to the blog, the list was complied by Cathy Castronova, a registered nurse and case manager with the service’s affiliate, Partners in Care, who assesses the homes of older people for safety and has taught numerous classes on helping seniors remain safe at home.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published the 2011 Home Health Prospective Payment System (PPS) Update Rule.
Combining the effects of a market basket update, a wage index update, reductions to the home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) rates to account for increases in aggregate case-mix that are unrelated to underlying changes in patients’ health status, and other provisions mandated by the Affordable Care Act, today’s rule proposed a 4.75 percent decrease in Medicare payments to home health agencies (HHAs) for calendar year (CY) 2011. The rule also changes the existing home health outlier policy, with total outlier payments not to exceed 2.5 percent of the total payments estimated for a given year. HHAs are also permanently subject to a 10 percent agency-level cap on outlier payments.
Additionally, the proposed rule includes provisions mandated in the health care reform act, which states that a physician must document a face-to-face encounter with the patient, prior to certifying a patient’s eligibility for the Medicare home health benefit and that a hospice physician or nurse practitioner has seen a patient prior to recertifying the patient’s eligibility for hospice services.
In a separate notification, hospices serving Medicare beneficiaries will see an estimated 1.8 percent increase in their payments for fiscal year (FY) 2011. The estimated hospice payment increase is the net result of a 2.6 percent increase in the “hospital market basket,” an indicator of input price increases. This is an offset by an estimated 0.8 percent decrease in payments to hospices due to updated wage index data and the second year of CMS’ 7-year phase-out of its wage index budget neutrality adjustment factor (BNAF).
A link to the notice, along with accompanying documents can be found here. Information on submitting comments is available within the notices.
Return to www.thinkhomcare.org.
In appreciation of Congressman Jim McGovern’s recent home visit with Community VNA of Attleboro, the nurse who the Congressman accompanied wrote an Op-Ed praising McGovern’s support of home health issues. The editorial appears here in the Attleboro Sun-Chronicle.
Sandy Legg-Forgiel was the registered nurse and telemonitoring coordinator for Community VNA who brought Congressman McGovern on the visit to the home of a patient on telehealth services. In addition to his existing support, McGovern agreed to sign on to an initiative that would expand the use of remote patient-monitoring services.
Congressman McGovern is a leading champion in Washington DC for the home health industry having established the Home Health Working Group in Congress and has filed or signed on to several pieces of legislation throughout his career that were of benefit to home care.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
Massachusetts is moving to the head of the pack in terms of service delivery realignment with the release on July 9th of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) RFR. As many as 50 practice sites could be selected to participate in a model that includes enhanced payments for care coordination and care management and shared savings to be calculated based on experiences of a control group of practices.
The PCMH demonstration, which will be three years in length, involves both MassHealth and several commercial insurers; although according to HHS Secretary Judy Ann Bigby, it is far more “Medicaid centric” than had been envisioned in earlier development stages.
With tremendous focus on each PCMH influencing what happens to the patient when she/he is not in the physicians office, the PCMH offers partnership opportunities for home health agencies. The RFR states that although all PCMH practice sites must provide care coordination for high risk patients, these services can be handled through a contractual relationship – as long as it clearly reflects a team approach. Additionally, with the shared savings component, practices will have a real financial stake in keeping patients out of hospitals and ERs.
Since small physician practices still dominate the market in Massachusetts, the states hopes to see a good representation of these in the mix of selected PCMHs. Home health agencies should be prepared to discuss this new opportunity with physician offices and to offer support and services to assist in their applications.
The full RFR is to be found on the state’s competitive bidding site Comm-Pass (search for (1LCEHSMEDICALHOMES). General information about the project, including some dates and times of informational webinars to be held next week, can be found on the EOHHS medical Home page
The Alliance is pleased to welcome its newest member, Family Assistance Staffing, a private care agency in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
The Home Care Alliance’s new Accreditation Program, which was recently announced at an event for members at Hebrew SeniorLife Home Care, is already gaining attention.
The Metrowest Daily News ran a story on the program that is meant to promote a series of standards for private duty home care agencies. The article mentions that, “The new standards cover areas such as recognizing and reporting elder abuse, ensuring services and costs are clear to customers up-front, and establishing procedures for clients to report problems with aides.”
The article states further a need for such standards as “Locally, the population of residents 75 and older was measured at nearly 26,000 in the 2000 Census, but that number is expected to grow to more than 40,000 by 2030, according to data from the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation.”
The Metrowest Daily News covers 27 towns west of Boston, including Framingham.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
The Boston Globe’s website, Boston.com, ran a piece in their “Jobs” section on the 30 fastest-growing jobs by 2018.
Many health care-related jobs show up on the list, but home health aides came in at number three.Physical and Occupational Therapy aides also came in high on the top 30, as were home care and personal aides, which ranked fourth.
The Globe acquired data to determine the rankings based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.
Think Home Care Blog 