Business Briefs: BrightStar’s TV Campaign, Care Finders Total Care’s New CEO

BrightStar Care Launches New National TV Campaign

BrightStar Care, a national in-home care and medical staffing franchise based in Chicago, launched a new national TV campaign that addresses the issue of caring for aging family members.

BrightStar Care has over 300 locations that can provide non-medical and medical services to clients within their homes, as well as supplemental care staff to corporate clients.

The 30-second TV spot, which depicts an emotional family homecoming, is meant to show the benefits of high-quality in-home health care for aging seniors. The spot running in highly rated programming features a sister, brother and daughter arriving at their grandmother’s house for her 83rd birthday where they are welcomed by a BrightStar Care professional caregiver. The ad is meant to showcase the unique role that the BrightStar Care Registered Nurse Director of Nursing plays in creating and overseeing a plan of care for each individual client, a service that BrightStar says no other private duty home care provider does.

“This TV advertising campaign is incredibly impactful because it addresses a topic that is very relatable for people with aging loved ones,” said Steve Schildwachter, BrightStar Care chief marketing officer. “No one else can tell this story the way we can because of our higher standard of care to those who need it most. We wanted to visualize the fact that BrightStar Care is a company that aims to improve both the life of the person requiring the care and the lives of their family members.”

The campaign was developed by Havas Worldwide StratFarm, a division of Havas Health. The commercial was produced by Humble Studios in New York and directed by Sasha Levinson. “Homecoming” was created by Havas’ Tom Keener and Chris Jarrin and written from the perspective of the family caregiver.

BrightStar Care said its CEO and co-founder Shelly Sun created the only private duty in-home care and medical staffing franchise that requires its locations to pursue and receive Joint Commission Accreditation. The TV campaign notes that Joint Commission Accreditation is the same accreditation earned by the nation’s best hospitals.

Care Finders Total Care LLC Names Kevin Rogers as New CEO

New Jersey-based home health care company Care Finders Total Care LLC announced that its board of directors has appointed Kevin Rogers as its new CEO.

Rogers, who most recently was the chief administrative officer of Visiting Nurse Service of New York, has 24 years of experience at some of the largest health care companies in New York and New Jersey.

In his role as CEO of Care Finders Total Care, Rogers is expected to be responsible for the company’s growth.

“As we seek to aggressively move CareFinders forward and establish the company as the leader in comprehensive home care, we focused on identifying an extraordinary leader who could bring vision, focus and a wealth of experience to CareFinders’ transformation,” Sanford Hausner, co-chairman, said in a prepared statement. “Kevin’s stellar credentials, deep expertise in the home care industry, and his passion for delivering the best quality patient and family care make him uniquely suited to lead our CareFinders management team.”

Kinnser Software Acquires PPS Plus

Austin, Texas-based Kinnser Software announced that it has acquired Biloxi, Mississippi-based PPS Plus, a national leader in clinical analysis and benchmarking solutions for home health agencies.

The announcement was made at the 2015 National Association of Home Care and Hospice Annual Meeting in Nashville.

Kinnser Software offers web-based solutions that deliver clinical and business results to the hospice, home health and private duty industries. Founded in 2003, the company serves over 4,000 home health, therapy, hospice, and private duty home care providers across the country. Kinnser helps thousands of doctors and other staff in post-acute health care manage billing, scheduling, electronic visit verification, patient referrals and day-to-day operations.

PPS Plus solutions integrate with multiple home health software solutions, including Kinnser. PPS Plus’s strategic alliances, software integrations and energetic team are not expected to change. PPS Plus will continue to work with all agencies and software vendors without disruption or limitations, while being wholly owned by Kinnser.

The acquisition is expected to enable both companies to accelerate innovation for the rapidly growing post-acute care sector.

“There has been a natural synergy between our companies for years,” said John Shinn, president and founder of PPS Plus. “We are excited that PPS Plus is now part of the Kinnser family. We’re looking forward to making our customers more successful and improving outcomes every step of the way.”

PPS Plus’s OASIS Analysis Plus solution helps agencies increase the accuracy of their clinical documents, while Benchmarks Plus provides agencies with clinically rich performance reports that help agencies improve efficiency and care.

Marion County Home Health Agency Dropping Home Health Services

After nearly 50 years of offering health services to homebound residents, the Marion County Home Health Agency in Missouri officially ceased operations on Oct. 31.

The Marion County Health Department is set to continue its public health functions, according to the Hannibal Courier-Post.

“It’s a hard thing to do to part with something that’s been a part of the agency for so long, but it is a window of opportunity to give us a chance to go forward and just concentrate on public health,” Jean McBride, administrator of the Marion County Health Department & Home Health Agency since March 2009, told the publication. “It’s something we’ve always taken very seriously and love to do, but there comes a time when you have to look at the facts and the board made a decision that we needed to close it.”

McBride cited federal guidelines as one reason behind the choice to close the agency.

“With the new regs changing and the restrictions, it just gets worse and worse,” McBride explained. “When you have an episode with a client and they (Medicare) pay you for that episode, two years down the line they can decide some documentation the doctor did was not accurate and they’ll take all that (reimbursement) money away from you. They call it an overpayment and you’ve got to pay it back with interest. It was different when it first started out. Medicare paid 100% and there wasn’t all the requirements or restrictions. Somewhere along the line agencies abused it so we all got caught under the punitive side of the regulations being more stringent. We followed the rules, but sometimes you can’t make it following the rules.”

McBride added that the number of referrals receiving the agency’s help have been falling in recent years.

“It used to be we had a core group that you could keep on and you would ‘re-cert’ them and keep them on. It would help keep them out of the nursing home and hospital,” she said. “Then with the rule changes it became a revolving door. If we got a referral they would only be on for a couple of weeks and there was tons of paperwork, and then they’d be discharged out. If you had a knee surgery, we only kept them on for a couple of weeks until they got on their feet for out-patient therapy. They had to be homebound, which has always been the case for Medicare. We’ve also got a younger generation that doesn’t want to stay home. And if they weren’t homebound they didn’t qualify.”

McBride predicted that more home-health providers will be following Marion County’s lead.

“We’re not the only health department in this situation. We just happen to be one of the first to do something,” she told the Hannibal Courier-Post. “When I called to ask about closing, they said this is happening more and more every day. It wasn’t just us. It’s unfortunate because it is a great service.”

Heritage Home Healthcare Sold to Affiliate of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society

Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Heritage Healthcare Services Inc. has been acquired by an affiliate of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society for an undisclosed price.

Heritage offers home care services at five locations in New Mexico and one in Arizona. Heritage also provides physical therapy, skilled nursing, hospice care and personal care.

The locations run by Heritage, which was founded in 1993 by husband-and-wife team Len and Liz Trainor, are set to keep the same name. No layoffs are anticipated, Len Trainor said.

Heritage currently has 2,000 employees, approximately 75% of whom are full-time.

Trainor said Heritage’s home health care, hospice and personal services are expected to complement Good Samaritan’s holdings, which include Manzano del Sol Village in Albuquerque.

The South Dakota-based Good Samaritan Society has 240 locations in 24 states, including eight in New Mexico. It operates skilled nursing facilities and assisted-living centers, as well as provides in-home and skilled nursing care.

ACHC and Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts form Partnership

Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) announced a newly formed partnership with the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc. The partnership enables the Alliance members to receive special pricing on ACHC’s Home Health, Hospice, and Private Duty Accreditation services, in addition to discounts on Accreditation University educational resources that help ready them for ACHC Accreditation.

“With a shared vision and commitment to quality, we are honored to support the Alliance and its members with special accreditation pricing including discounts on ACHC Accreditation Guide to Success workbooks and ACHC Accreditation workshops,” said Matt Hughes, ACHC director of business management & customer service.

Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc., founded in 1969, connects individuals and organizations in order to advance access to quality care and services in the home through education, advocacy and outreach. The Alliance offers home care resources to the over 200 home care provider agencies they represent.

ACHC is a non-profit accreditation organization that offers nationally recognized accreditation services for home health, private duty and hospice agencies. The organization has CMS Deeming Authority for Home Health, Hospice and DMEPOS, and a Quality Management System that is certified to ISO 9001:2008. ACHC’s consultative approach to accreditation is intended to improve the quality of patient care while enhancing business efficiencies through industry-based best practices and service-specific standards.

Written by Mary Kate Nelson