Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) has returned the $237 million in emergency provider relief it received from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the CARES Act. Encompass Health’s move is one many home health providers are considering, as confusion around terms and conditions of the funding has operators fearful of […]
Home health providers were thrilled when they first heard they would be receiving “no strings attached” payments from the Provider Relief Fund, which was mandated by the CARES Act. However, agencies quickly learned that there was more to the story. The grant funding comes with conditions, and confusion around those conditions has some home health […]
As the coronavirus outbreak continues and more states begin the process of reopening, LeadingAge is demanding action from policymakers to help keep seniors and the workers who care for them safe. The advocacy organization — which represents more than 5,000 aging-focused organizations nationwide, including at-home care agencies — is urging lawmakers to equip senior care […]
The coronavirus has shed new light on the importance of home-based care. Even after the virus fades into a painful memory, in-home care will remain firmly rooted in the fabric of the U.S. health care system. At least, that’s what stakeholders like Brent Feorene — executive director of the American Academy of Home Care Medicine […]
Weeks after Medicare providers began receiving their CARES Act relief payments, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is asking states to send in their Medicaid reimbursement data. The move gets the ball rolling for Medicaid providers — including many home health and personal care agencies — to receive relief payments of their own, […]
Coming into 2020, home health care providers were preparing for drastic changes to the way that low-utilization payment adjustments (LUPAs) were calculated, a nuance of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), which took effect Jan. 1. However, what no one predicted is how the coronavirus would even further rock the LUPA landscape. Amid the COVID-19 emergency, […]
A growing number of media outlets have recently declared home-based care the new front line of the coronavirus. While the recognition is well deserved, there’s nothing new about in-home care providers’ efforts. Agencies have been braving the COVID-19 battlefield since the beginning, pulling patients from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and overburdened hospitals to care for […]
Providence — one of the largest health care systems in the nation — is the closest thing the U.S. has to a COVID-19 pioneer. One of its hospitals based in Washington state treated the country’s first COVID-19 positive patient back in February. Since then, the coronavirus has made its way down Providence’s care continuum, all […]
While home-based care providers nationwide are on the frontlines in the fight against the COVID-19 virus, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) is on the bloodiest part of the battlefield. To date, New York accounts for nearly half of all the coronavirus-related deaths nationwide. Though the COVID-19 mortality rate seems to be flattening […]
In the past two weeks, nearly 10 million people have filed for unemployment, pushing the jobless rate “certainly higher than at any point since the Great Depression,” according to the New York Times. These unprecedented times have prompted unprecedented benefits: Thanks to new pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic […]