So far, the transition to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) has gone smoothly for many home health agencies, with a majority successfully avoiding questionable encounters and achieving staffing efficiencies across their operations. Eagle, Idaho-based The Pennant Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PNTG) has seen positive results on its end, too, especially when it comes to coding accurately […]
Today, just a fraction of community-based palliative care programs are operated by home health providers. But the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and a shift away from fee-for-service Medicare will likely change that moving forward. Throughout the health care world, the term “palliative care” often carries a different meaning from one organization to the next. In […]
Oak Street Health (NYSE: OSH) — a rapidly growing, multi-setting primary care company that specializes in caring for seniors, especially those in underserved communities — officially went public last Thursday with an initial offering of $328 million. The Chicago-based company sold 15.6 million shares at $21, which was slightly above its anticipated offering of $15 […]
After weeks — in some cases, months — of closures due to the coronavirus, businesses across the U.S. began reopening in early June. But by July, many of those same businesses were forced to go in the opposite direction, thanks to a national resurgence of COVID-19 cases. As shops, manufacturing plants and warehouses again attempt […]
In the build-up to 2020 and the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), many home health providers began shifting their referral strategies to focus more on hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and other institutional sources. Generally, providers realized that patients coming from such settings likely meant more Medicare dollars under PDGM, especially when patients were also classified […]
While home-based medical care has been shown to reduce hospitalization rates and lower costs for both homebound and non-homebound populations alike, it continues to be drastically underutilized in the current health care ecosystem. As a result, there are millions of older Americans — especially those living in rural areas — who are going without the […]
As states and cities shatter their old coronavirus records due to the current summer resurgence, health care officials and policymakers are once again shining a spotlight on high-risk populations, which include older adults in the community, individuals living in long-term care facilities and the immunocompromised. One vulnerable group, however, is getting overlooked. Between the worsening […]
Health and well-being company Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) has spent the past few years adding to its health care services portfolio while aggressively investing around a home-based care strategy. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company has now revealed its latest step in that direction. On Wednesday, Humana announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership with Heal, the in-home primary […]
Home health providers large and small have had to navigate workforce uncertainty, supply shortages, admissions declines and various other challenges over the past several months. All of those obstacles are tied to the coronavirus, which has turned the home health industry upside down in 2020. Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) faced the majority of that […]
Federal watchdogs are once again setting their sights on perceived improper billing practices by home health agencies. In an audit report published last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that stronger oversight of Low Utilization Payment Adjustments (LUPAs) in home health care could have saved […]
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