HHCN Research: Personal Care Services Projected to Dominate Home Care’s 2020 Medicare Advantage Involvement

The Medicare Advantage (MA) expansions that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this year and in early 2018 open the door to creative applications of non-medical home care services designed to proactively improve individuals’ health. The pair of new rules, with the broader of the two taking effect in 2020, have led […]

FirstLight Adds Executives to Fuel Growth, Amedisys Board Member Retires

FirstLight expands leadership team amid rapid growth To accommodate recent growth, FirstLight Home Care has created and filled seven new positions, expanding its focus in areas such as technology, talent acquisition and franchise development. While the hires are new, growth within the nine-year-old Cincinnati-based home care company is not. In 2017 alone, the franchisor increased […]

BrightSpring Adds to Executive Team, Encompass HR Chief Retiring

BrightSpring adds new clinical, compliance execs BrightSpring Health Services, one of the country’s largest home and community-based health services providers for high-need populations, has hired a new chief clinical officer and a new chief compliance officer. Susan Sender will take the reigns as the company’s chief clinical officer, while Rachael Kurzer Givens has been named […]

Must-Read News: Giving Hospice Accolades

After a long weekend, get a jump-start on your week with our Must-Read News flash. See what headlines caught our eye around the web. Keep reading to see our top stories on all things home health and home care from last week. The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a highlight of […]

Amedisys Expands in Kentucky, Executive Care Enters Virginia

Catch up on the latest business deals shaping the home health and personal care industry: Amedisys Adds Coverage Area in Kentucky Baton Rouge-based Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has acquired the right to operate in 10 counties in western Kentucky from Christian Care Communities, the state’s largest faith inspired provider of senior living, long-term care and […]

Amedisys Sees Opportunities In Competitors’ Mergers

If Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has any concerns as its competitors merge, executives didn’t show it during the company’s end-of-year earnings call Wednesday. Instead, the Baton Rouge-based company is looking forward to a year with few headwinds, and eyeing new opportunities amid industry consolidation and greater regulatory visibility. The merger between LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG) and Almost […]

Medicare Advantage Home Care Proposal Excites Providers, Payers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed adding non-skilled in-home care as a supplemental benefit to Medicare Advantage plans in 2019. The language of the proposal led to questions, still unanswered, about which specific services could be covered under MA plans. However, home care providers and insurance companies are interpreting the new […]

Amedisys Heart Failure Program Cuts Hospital Readmissions

Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has cut its acute care hospitalization rate over the last two years thanks to a focused program, the company announced Thursday. Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys is one of the nation’s largest home health care providers, serving more than 369,000 patients annually across 432 care centers in 34 states. The heart failure […]

Top 10 Home Health and Hospice Providers

Despite regulatory and operational challenges within the home health and hospice industries, competition remains strong, as evidenced in Chicago-based research firm LexisNexis’ 2017 Top 100 Home Health and Hospice Agencies Rankings. The 2017 rankings were compiled by LexisNexis Risk Solutions utilizing 2016 medical claims and patient volume data from the company’s proprietary “MarketView” claims database, […]