We have been told that our weekly feature, “Last Week’s Most Popular Story,” is a popular one. So, to close the year, we thought we would bring a whole issue in that theme. Below you will find links to the year’s most-read news articles, interviews and opinion pieces. First, some 2011 statistics: We ran 201 [...]
Today is December 7, 2011. Seventy years ago, a violent attack permanently imprinted tragic images on the American consciousness. Seventy years and three months ago, PFC Joseph P. Rowan was discharged from the U.S. Army; his final post was Schofield Barracks, a few minutes’ drive from Pearl Harbor. My thoughts turn to my father every December 7, and every time I give thanks that he got out of there in time and, as he nears his 92nd birthday, every time I take my turn as his caregiver. These are those thoughts.
What technologies are in use by home health care providers today? How will technology shape the home health care industry over the next few years? What technologies are helping home health care providers compete now and remain competitive in the future? We asked you and you told us. Here is analyst and independent consultant Dione Chen’s summary of what you said.
According to CMS data, the number of Medicare certified home health care agencies now exceeds 11,000. New research into that data by Healthcare Market Resources has brought to light a new and better way of understanding the general health of the Medicare home health care industry in an era of healthcare reform. It also helps to explain why the industry’s software vendors seem to be scratching their heads over the phenomenon of growing numbers of agencies but flat sales.
We do not often run editorial pieces, preferring to stick to reporting straight news. However, the budget battle raging in Congress right now is on the verge of doing tremendous damage to Medicare, including its home care benefit. Unfortunately, current events are too often interpreted without reference to their historical context. So we went back eight years to resurrect a legislative story that may help us better understand Representative Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) new proposal to do away with Medicare entirely.
To be clear: as opinion pieces are supposed to be, this one is admittedly one-sided, though its point of view is based on historical facts that are easily verifiable. It will come across as critical of both Ryan and one other giant of CMS history, Thomas A. Scully. Reader feedback is welcome, whether you agree or disagree. It is intended to be read in tandem with this week’s report (above) on a decision made by one of our advertisers, FGA, Inc., a decision quite the opposite of what Scully and Ryan are known for.
Lively discussions are not new within home care’s small telephony vendor community. Never before, however, has a controversy spawned the birth of an entire new organization to address it, nor has it led to such cooperation among competitors. As state Medicaid officials finally begin to appreciate the advantages of Electronic Visit Verification, the way four of them are going about it has raised some serious concerns.
Speculation has run wild for two years about how CMS might change the home care payment system this time. Talk of payment bundling, where hospitals get all the money and dole it out as they see fit, is already appearing as a workshop topic. Rumors about payments going directly to patients have come and gone. [...]
If home health care providers sometimes feel that government agencies treat the industry like a pre-ball Cinderella when it comes to payment rates, a new report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) will not make them feel any better. Though CMS continues to look for reasons to reduce payment rates to home care agencies, [...]
Even before President Obama’s promise to hire bounty hunters to eliminate waste and fraud from Medicare, Regional Home Health Intermediaries had been stepping up their rate of payment denials. Most often, justifications to withhold payments for already provided nursing or therapy services center around “lack of medical necessity.” In case after case, attorneys and appeals consultants [...]
When HCTR editor Tim Rowan travels to Albuquerque next month to address the 4-state Southwest Regional Home Care Conference about home care technology, he will make the five-hour drive from Colorado Springs instead of flying. Ask him why and he answers without hesitation, “Two-hour advance arrival times, TSA security lines, airport parking fees, cramped seats, [...]
