On a federal level, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), LeadingAge and the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare (PQHH) have all ramped up their home health advocacy efforts this summer and in early fall. Increasingly, state home health leaders have joined in on those efforts as well. Over the past three months, […]
Category: Regulation
Starting in 2021, Medicare patients could have access to a new permanent home infusion benefit. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed the benefit in July as part of its proposed home health payment rule, with the goal being to move more care into the home. While some view the proposed benefit as […]
For years now, the caregiver crisis has plagued the home care industry, with demand far outpacing supply in most parts of the county and home care turnover hitting an all-time high of 82% in 2018. In New York, regulatory changes are about to make the problem a lot worse, according to industry leaders in the […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — or the Tesla of home care, according to some — recently made changes to its health care plan to put veterans at the center of their own care and reduce network fragmentation. The VA Mission Act makes it easier for veterans to visit non-VA medical facilities and creates […]
While it’s important to prepare for the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) in 2020, home health owners and operators need to make sure they’re not taking their eye off the ball in 2019. The Prospective Payment System (PPS) is complex enough, so being overly focused on the future could impact financial success in the present. That’s […]
At least in one state, the diversion of patients from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to home-based care appears still be going strong. In Connecticut, state officials have targeted nine under-performing nursing homes for millions of dollars in Medicaid funding cuts, partly citing large numbers of empty beds as the reason why, the Hartford Courant reported […]
Industry experts predict that a potential phase out of home health Requests for Anticipated Payments (RAPs) will likely put several small to mid-size providers out of business. But not everybody is lamenting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposal. Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) and other large home health providers, for example, have spun […]
An ongoing financial crisis related to phone troubles has put a Texas home health agency “on life support,” according to a local news report. The story further reveals how even a seemingly small disruption to cash flow can put home health providers with tight operating margins underwater. Opened more than two decades ago, Beaumont, Texas-based […]
A value-based kidney care company is showing what’s possible when it comes to renal treatment in the home — potentially providing a framework for home-based care providers if a variety of newly proposed payment models come to fruition. Since getting started about three-and-a-half years ago, Vienna, Virginia-based Somatus Inc. has served 3,000 patients, doing more […]
In July, Home Health Care News heard from five home health providers — big and small — for a check-in on industry progress preparing for the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Now it’s time for the consultants and other industry leaders to weigh in as well. With less than five full months before PDGM is set […]