Blog
EVV in Ohio: Top 10 Things You Should Know
1. What is EVV and Who needs to use it? EVV stands for Electronic Visit Verification, which is a system for recording home-based personal care and home health services in...
Communicate the Pending Time Change for Conflict-Free Care
This Sunday, November 3rd, daylight saving time ends and standard time begins at 2 AM local time. The time "falls" back by one hour, which for some may mean an additional...
Leveraging CMS Patient Experience Surveys as a Health Care Provider
Originally posted on Home Health Care News, with slight variation, on April 26, 2019. The CMS patient-experience surveys were created to improve the quality of health care...
Flu Season 2018 the Worst in Years: What You Need to Know
The headlines have been frightening: People of all ages have been dying of the flu, emergency rooms are full of sick people, and doctors are saying that it’s the worst flu...
How to Start a Home Health Care Agency: New or Buy Existing?
Home health care is the fastest growing industry in the U.S., and it’s really not a surprise. According to the U.S. Census, there will be more than 83 million people over...
More Home Health Agencies Receive 5 Star Status – Here’s How You Can Too
The latest star ratings on CMS’ Home Health Compare website were released in mid-April, and the news was great for more agencies. The number of home health agencies that...
Advantages of Home Care Apps
We live in an on-demand world today. Want to watch last night’s primetime TV or a new release film? Just call it up on any number of digital services. Need a ride somewhere?...
MedPAC Recommends Significant Changes to Home Health Payments for 2019
Once again, MedPAC has recommended that Medicare cut payments to home health agencies. In the annual report issued in March, the bipartisan Medicare Payment Advisory...
Employee-Owned Home Health Agencies on the Rise
In an era when the business news is full of stories of major corporations, multi-million dollar acquisitions, and mega-IPO’s, there is a growing trend in home health care...
EVV Requirements Lead to Privacy Concerns for Providers and Patients
As part of the 21st Century CURES Act, as of January 1, 2019, personal care aides must provide electronic visit verification (EVV) when making visits to Medicaid patients to...
Independence at Home Saves More Money Than ACOs
If there was ever any question about the value of health care at home, they are being put to rest by the recent news that the Independence at Home (IAH) demonstration...
Study Finds Doctors Aren’t Engaging with Home Health Plans
As anyone experienced in home healthcare can attest, often one of the most challenging aspects of the process of getting patients the care they need is getting physicians to...
Why Your Agency Should Seek Accreditation
As the emphasis on delivering quality care that meets specific standards grows, a growing number of home health agencies are seeking accreditation. While being an accredited...
Your Next Home Health Aide: A Robot?
The idea of robots being a part of our everyday lives – and in some cases, wreaking havoc – is nothing new. Hollywood has long been fascinated with the idea of robot...
America’s Long-Term Care Crisis: Is Home Health the Answer?
The statistics are mind-boggling: A private room in a nursing home costs an average of $92,000 per year. A shared room is only about $10,000 per year less — and the average...
Non-Skilled Home Care Allowed for Medicare Advantage
We may be halfway thru the year, but CMS is already working on rules and changes to home health care policies for 2019. And while rule changes often bring concern in the...
How New Education Requirements Could Affect Home Health
Education has always been a key requirement for working in the health care field. Thanks to a series of new regulations, however, the standards for education in both...
Home Health Caregivers Want to Use Tech: What’s the Problem?
Family caregivers are a vital part of the healthcare system. According to Caregiver.org, more than 34 million Americans provide unpaid care for a loved one over age 50 — and...
Training Is the Key to Home Health Care Success
In any business, employee training is critical to success, and home health care is no different. A well-trained workforce is the key to ensuring that not only do your...
Industry Groups Working to Protect Rural Safeguards
Most people who live in rural areas will happily tell you about the virtues of living in such areas: the fresh air, the open space, the distance from many of the problems...
CMS Launches New Voluntary Medicare Bundled Payment Program
As part of their commitment to value-based healthcare, the Obama administration introduced a number of mandatory Medicare bundled payment programs that tied reimbursement to...
Is Amazon Setting Its Sights on Home Health Care?
It’s hard to imagine that just 20 years ago, Amazon was a relatively new online bookseller, best known for offering deep discounts on bestselling titles. Today, Amazon still...
Could Universal In-Home Care Become a Reality?
For many individuals who need home health services, cost is a determining factor. Private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid don’t always cover all the services that...
Keeping Your Home Health Workers Safe on the Job
As demand for home healthcare increases, so does the number of providers working in the field. While, statistically speaking, home healthcare workers are less likely to be...
How Tax Reform Will Affect Home Health
For months, the Trump Administration’s efforts at tax reform dominated headlines, and much discussion in business in general. Now that the dust has settled, and the Tax Cuts...
Did your software vendor leave you hanging in the wind with the new CoPs?
New CoP’s Updates for CMS surveyors were recently released giving guidelines and protocols to utilize during surveys. The new CoP’s went into effect on January 13, 2018...
3 Top Home Health Stories From 2017
Now that 2017 has come and gone, it’s a good time to look back at some of the biggest stories in home healthcare from the last 12 months, and see where we are now. Last year...
How to Improve Infection Control With Family Caregivers
Infection control is a serious concern in any healthcare setting. According to the CDC, at any given moment, 725 patients in the U.S. are being treated for an infection that...
Consider Digital Marketing More for Your HHA
Most home health agency marketing plans rely heavily on word of mouth and referrals. However, the market is changing considerably, and it’s time for HHAs to look at...
EMS to Play Larger Role in Home Health Services
When you think of emergency medical services (EMS), what do you think of? Most likely, you think of ambulances, and the paramedics and EMT’s who stabilize patients until...
Predictive Analytics in Home Health – Where Are We Now?
For several years, health care researchers and experts have sung the praises of the power of predictive analytics in improving health care. By drawing on existing data, they...
How to Better Manage Your Remote Workers
The majority of home health workers work independently, only visiting the agency offices occasionally for meetings or other “check-ins.” In some rural areas, those office...
Will Nursing Homes Eventually Disappear?
For generations, it was often a foregone conclusion for many people that their final days would be spent in a nursing home. In 2005, research showed that at least 35 percent...
New Initiative: Increase Home-Based Primary Care
For most of us, the idea of a house call from the doctor seems impossibly quaint, like something from the “Andy Griffith Show,” a remnant of a time gone by. That doesn’t...
How Will AI Change Home Health?
The idea of artificial intelligence and its applications in healthcare has been a hot topic of conversation for several years now. Questions haven’t been related to the role...
What HHAs Can Learn From Recent Disasters
When the recent spate of storm in 2017 lashed the southern U.S. and Caribbean, much of the news coverage focused on the flooding and massive destruction that the heavy...
The HHGM in a Nutshell: What You Need to Know
At the end of July, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the prospective payment system for 2018, and the update proved to be controversial in the...
Home Health Providers Can Reduce Readmissions by Offering In-Home Coaching
One of the primary goals for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) — and consequently, home health agencies and hospitals – is a reduction in the number of...
How Millennials Are Changing the Healthcare Workforce
If there is one thing that most everyone can agree upon when it comes to talking about millennials, it’s that this generation is the generation of change. They are unlike...
Overtime Rule Overturned: Now What?
In 2016, the Obama administration made headlines when it passed an update to the overtime rules, effectively requiring overtime pay for most employees earning less than $913...
Home Health Quality Reporting Program May Soon Include Social Risk Factors
For some time now, home health care providers have noted that some the measures used by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to rate the quality of care don’t...
CMS Emergency Preparedness Deadline Looms: Are You Ready?
Emergencies can happen at any time, and usually without warning. And even when you have time to prepare — such as in the days before a major storm — the effects of the...
Why Patient Satisfaction Is Key to Your Provider Recruitment
The looming shortage of home health care workers is of no surprise to most agencies. In fact, most agencies say that recruiting home health workers to their agencies, and...
Proposed Bill Seeks to Speed Up Home Health Claims Appeal Processing
Currently, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has a backlog of more than 25,000 appeals for home health care services that have been denied. In many of these...
Home Health Reduces Readmissions — But How Can We Convince Patients They Need Help?
One of the most disruptive trends in health care today is the shift away from hospital care to care in the community. In other words, patients are spending less time...
CMS Delays Start of New CoP Rules for Agency Improvements
In March, CMS announced the final rules for the new Conditions of Participation (CoP) for home health agencies. In development for nearly three years, the new CoPs marked...
New Study Finds Gaps in Communication Between Doctors and Home Health Care Providers
According to a new study at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, there are serious gaps in communication between physicians and home health providers — gaps...
Leaders Identify Changes to Improve Home Health Care
Even though there are more than 2 million home health professionals providing care for nearly 5 million people every year — making it a significant part of the overall...
Improving Family Caregiver Training a Growing Priority
Imagine that one of your loved ones is hospitalized for a stroke. After several days in the hospital, he’s discharged home, despite having weakness in his extremities and...
U.S. Exploring Aging in Place Issues in Collaboration With Japan
It’s no surprise that the U.S. population is aging, and quickly: By 2060, it’s predicted that there will be nearly 100 million adults over age 65, increasing the percentage...