Through partnerships with local hospitals, Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) can lower annual Medicare spending by roughly $136 per beneficiary, a new study unveiled Monday in the journal Health Affairs has found. AAA organizations offer local services that allow adults to age in place, including in-home care and support. Some of these organizations are affiliated […]
Category: Medicare
The coronavirus is making it harder for home-based care providers to stay afloat, mainly by draining basic protective equipment and disrupting organizations’ staffing levels. More than 72% of home-based care professionals don’t have adequate amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE), while more than half say their organizations are having staffing struggles. Meanwhile, nearly 58% of […]
Home health providers are positioning themselves as the answer to lessening the burden on U.S. hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the federal government will need to continue cutting through the red tape for providers to be effective. The past four weeks have elicited concerns about hospital over-capacity issues, as the number of confirmed coronavirus […]
On Friday, Feb. 28, just after 10 p.m. PT, Brent Korte — chief home care officer at EvergreenHealth — got a call that changed everything. It was from his boss. “She asked me if I was sitting down,” Korte said. “She told me that EvergreenHealth not only had patients who had tested positive for COVID-19, […]
In one of the latest sets of COVID-19 directions for Medicare providers, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled updated guidelines for all Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) organizations on Tuesday. Broadly, CMS’s guidelines cover standard procedures for infection control and prevention for COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. […]
The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) was one of the largest concerns for the home health industry after it was finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in October 2019. But now that it has been implemented and agencies have faced their boogeyman, confidence under the new payment model is growing, industry insiders […]
Over the past few weeks, nursing home operators have been working in overdrive, trying to avoid a fate similar to the Kirkland, Washington-based long-term care facility devastated by COVID-19. While home health providers are also gearing up for increased patient capacity and challenges associated with the coronavirus, their operations remain mostly stable — for now. […]
Six months into the new payment model for skilled nursing providers, the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) is proving to be more costly than the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) initially anticipated. PDPM claims patterns could give home health providers a glimpse of what’s in store with the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Broadly, PDPM […]
Despite the benefits of telehealth services, the general lack of reimbursement under Medicare has created persistent roadblocks when it comes to widespread adoption among U.S. home health providers. Over the past several years, telehealth services have proven their value when it comes to improving access to care for patients and lowering overall health care costs. […]
U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) is sponsoring a resolution to once again amplify aging-related issues through the Permanent Select Committee on Aging. The committee would aim to better address various issues that affect seniors, such as housing, long-term care and poverty, among others. A lot of the panel’s focus on its first near 20-year run […]