House Concurrent Resolution 59 honoring and recognizing home care and the profession of care giving was approved by the Senate last week after winning approval in the House of Representatives by a vote 387-0.
The Resolution reads, in part: “Congress… recognizes caregiving as a profession [and] supports the private home care industry and the efforts of family caregivers nationwide.”
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.
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EDIT: The link to the White Paper is now fixed.
I will be representing the Alliance at the annual Case Managers Society of New England conference in Worcester on Thursday and Friday. In addition to distributing copies of the 2009 Resource Directory — I ran out of the 100 copies I brought to last year’s conference — I will debut the new 2010 Guide to Private Care Services at this meeting.
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An Opinion-Editorial titled “Support Home Care Providers” focusing on the role of home health care in the nation’s health care reform efforts, as well as the role it should play, was published in today’s (September 30) Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The Op-Ed is printed in a section of the paper called “As I See It” and was submitted by President and CEO of VNA Care Network & Hospice Karen Green.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
These are historic times in our nation and our state. With the attention of Congress and the president focused on health care reform, we as health care providers are poised between impatience and trepidation. We are impatient for action to help the struggling uninsured families we know only too well, but fear that paying for expanding access to insurance out of Medicare “savings” will be a death knell for the most efficient among us.
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The Boston Globe’s website featured an article that brought another chapter in the ongoing story of whether or not a so-called public option should be included in the nation’s health care reform. As the story reports here, the Senate Finance Committee voted down a measure to include the public option in their version of a reform bill.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who did not include a public option in his markup of the proposal, had this this to say:
“My job is to put together a bill that gets to 60 votes” in the full Senate, the Montana Democrat said shortly before he joined a majority on the committee in opposing the provision. “No one shows me how to get to 60 votes with a public option,” the term used to describe a new government role in health care. It takes 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to overcome delaying actions that Republicans may attempt.
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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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We are planning another OASIS workshop in December for those of you that have been closed out of the October workshop. We will announce details soon.
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The Alliance now has a new Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/HCA_Of_Mass.
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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.
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Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts, Inc., a subsidiary of Seniorlink, Inc. and an allied member of the Home Care Alliance has won the Pioneer Institute’s 2009 Better Government Competition meant to showcase innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency of government.
Click here to view a press announcement of the award.
The competition’s theme this year was health care, and the nursing home diversion program administered by Caregiver Homes came out on top out of 150 applicants.
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