Blog
If You Aren’t Using Mobile Apps Yet, You Should Be
Apps have become an integral part of nearly everyone’s lives. Want to know what the weather will be like across the country during your vacation? There’s an app for that....
New Research Indicates Rural Patients Still Aren’t Accessing Home Health Service
There are plenty of benefits to choosing to live in more rural areas: fresh air, less traffic, lower taxes. Unfortunately, though, for all of its benefits, rural living does...
How Organizing a Multi-Disciplinary Care Coordination Team Can Improve Clinical Outcomes
Who is really responsible for patient care? This question haunts many providers in the patient’s care but there is really no main individual who manages patient care. One of...
Insights From the 2017 AHHQI Home Health Chartbook
In early March, the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (AHHQI) released a new version of the Home Health Chartbook, and the overall message is clear: Home...
Implementing a Code of Conduct in Your Home Health Agency
Does your home health agency have a formal code of conduct for employees? If not, you need one. In the simplest terms, a code of conduct is a written document that clearly...
National Quality Forum Recommends Reducing Number of Home Health Quality Measures
One priority for a home health agency is to deliver high-quality care. Not only do quality scores play a role in calculating reimbursements, but they can influence whether...
Senators Reintroduce Home Health Planning Act to Expand Role of PAs in Home Health
Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have reintroduced a bill to Congress aimed at increasing access to home healthcare services, especially for those living...
HIS 2.0 Reporting and Requirements: Here’s What You Really Need to Know
The emphasis on quality in hospice reporting is becoming very real as new hospice quality reporting and measures started on April 1, 2017 with the patient-level data...
Updated CoPs Include New Rights for Patients
CMS recently released new Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoP) for home health care agencies that are set to take effect on January 13, 2018. Because the CoP has not...
New Executive Order Could Relax Some Home Health Regulations
As any business owner can attest, the regulatory environment in the U.S. is, at minimum, riddled with complexity. Not only is it often challenging to comply with federal,...
Home Health Care Valuable to Seniors’ Mental Health
There is no doubt that home health care is invaluable to the physical health of those who receive services. Study after study has revealed that home health services reduce...
Common Home Health HIPAA Violations and How to Avoid Them
As a HIPAA-covered entity, you’re undoubtedly aware of the many regulations related to maintaining your clients’ privacy and protecting their personal information. However,...
AWS and Complia Health Bring You Reliability and Dependability
A question to consider: Just how much would it cost your business if you had to suspend operations completely for a day? How much would losing that work day cost your...
Remote Monitoring Gaining Momentum, But It Won’t Replace Caregivers
If there are two measures that nearly every home health agency is grappling with, it’s hospital readmission rates and quality of care. In theory, they are related: The...
How Mobile Technology Is Changing Home Health
These days, there is virtually no aspect of life that isn’t influenced by mobile technology in some way. The idea of a “cellphone” has expanded well beyond a device for...
CMS Releases Final Rule for Home Health Conditions of Participation
Since the late 1990s, the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoP) for home health agencies have remained largely unchanged. The last significant update to the rules was...
Why Pediatric Care May Be the Key to Growing Your Agency
When most people think of home health care, they think of adults — most likely elderly — receiving services at home. Yet while seniors are most likely to receive home health...
Hidden Cameras in Patient Homes Becoming More Common: How to Protect Your Agency
The images are startling, and disturbing: Elderly and disabled adults being abused by the very people who are supposed to be taking care of them. Every year, more than 2...
Using Your Agency’s Data for Better Results
When you are looking to improve the operation of your home health agency, you have a number of tools at your disposal. Perhaps the most powerful tool, though, is data....
How the 21st Century Cures Act Will Affect Home Health Care
With only a few weeks left in office, President Barack Obama signed into law last month one of the most sweeping pieces of health care legislation since the Affordable Care...
How Home Health Care Agencies Can Improve Family Involvement in Care
There is no question that family caregivers are an integral part of the health care continuum for older adults. In fact, there are an estimated 17.7 million unpaid family...
CMS Releases Final Rule on Value-Based Purchasing Pilot Program
As part of the ongoing efforts by CMS to help build a more sustainable health care system that improves care and outcomes, while reducing costs, the Home Health Value-Based...
Complia CARE 2017 Users Conference – Unique C-Suite Track Opportunities
It’s just one month until the Complia Health CARE 2017 Users Conference, and our slate of content for this year’s conference is especially robust. One unique feature of this...
How to Help Your Clients Feel More Comfortable with Your Technology
Technology has become an integral part of modern health care delivery at all stages — including home health. From home health workers using tablets and laptops to document...
What’s the Future of Home Health Care? Understanding the 4 Pillars
In late October, the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (AHHQI) released the findings from their Future of Home Care study. The report detailed the group’s...
CMS to Begin Denying Claims Without Matching OASIS — How to Avoid Problems
Among the news of excessive claim denials under the pre-claim authorization demonstration project and the subsequent delays in extending the project to other states, home...
Great Reasons to Attend Complia CARE 2017 – Our User Conference
Stephen Covey, the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People said that one of the most important things you can do is “sharpen the saw” – investing time yourself and...
Does Your Staff Have Mobile Devices? They Should
If you were to ask your staff, “Who has a smartphone?” there is a good chance that most — if not all — of your caregivers will report having one of the devices. They have...
Medicare Pre-Claim Reviews Delayed Due to Problems
Back in September, we reported that the Medicare pre-claim review process had begun in Illinois, and by all accounts, the initiative was not going very well. Despite...
How to Overcome the Biggest Barriers to Hiring Great Home Care Staff
Ask any home health agency owner about the challenges they face in running their business, and inevitably staffing will come up. Turnover within the home health field is...
Move Your Agency Forward by Partnering With an ACO
One of the major changes implemented by the Affordable Care Act was the development of Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs. These groups of providers work together to...
How to Create a Culture of Cybersecurity in Your Agency
Protecting patient information is of paramount importance to all health care organizations. Patient records include a great deal of data that is attractive to...
5 Tips for Home Health Startups
Based on the headlines about home health care today, many people who might otherwise have opted to start a business are looking to other options instead. While there are...
Increasing Patient Engagement Through IT
It’s no surprise to caregivers that the majority of health care takes place when providers aren’t actually present. It’s remembering to take our medication on time. It’s...
Using Social Media to Market Your Home Care Business
These days, whenever anyone wants to find out information about anything, they go online. With a few keystrokes and clicks, it’s easy to find information about virtually...
The 3 Keys to Complia Health’s Customer Satisfaction Success
We are all quite familiar with this scenario. It’s your first time interacting with customer service and your only option is to be greeted by an automated messaging system....
Home Health Still Facing Recruiting Challenges
Home health agencies continue to have trouble filling open positions, but the reasons aren’t necessarily what you might think. If you were judge only by the headlines, it...
Finding Your Unique Selling Point Vital to Your Agency’s Success
The home health industry faces unprecedented pressures when it comes to competition, payments, regulations, and consumer expectations. In short, even well-established...
How Employee Engagement Can Improve HHCAHPS Results
With the recent reveal of the Patient Satisfaction Star Ratings on CMS’s Home Health Compare Website, many agencies are looking at ways to improve their patient satisfaction...
Looking Ahead: What Will Home Health Care Look Like in the Future?
In late June, the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation presented a panel based on research and input from individuals at a number of symposia held throughout 2015...
How Your Agency Can Prepare for Pre-Claim Reviews
As part of their continued efforts to reduced fraud in waste within the home health care industry, CMS has gone forward with its three-year pre-claim authorization...
Ransomware a Growing Concern in Health Care: Here’s How to Protect Yourself
A growing number of hospitals and other health care providers are falling victim to ransomware attacks, leading to concern that millions of patient records — not to mention...
Flu Season Is Here: What You Need to Know Now
Coming down with the flu is usually a miserable experience. The fever and chills, cough, pain, and fatigue that can last for a week or longer is certainly unpleasant for...
Fall Brings New Laws to Home Health: A Roundup of Legislation and Rules Affecting Your Agency
Now that the summer days are over, the kids are back in school, and pumpkin spice is once again taking over the world, it’s time for a number of new laws and regulations to...
How You Can Avoid Some of the Top Home Care Client Complaints
In any industry that offers service, there are bound to be customer complaints. Whether you are dealing with clients who just happen to be particular and will never be 100...
Office of Civil Rights Phase 2 HIPAA Audits Underway
Under the provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is required to conduct...
What New Overtime Rules Mean for Home Health Agencies
Anyone who works in a salaried position would probably tell you that doing so is a double-edged sword. While it’s nice to have a stable paycheck and have some flexibility in...