Home Health Special Report

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Home Health Special Report - NAHC 2008

Live Coverage from the National Association for Home Care and Hospice

October 13, 2008

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In this issue...

-- Home Care & Hospice: Charting New Frontiers in Health Care

-- NAHC and Cerner/Beyond Now Present Home Care Innovation Award

-- Join us in Baltimore for The Academy for Home Care Sales and Marketing

-- Teleseminar - Recruiting and Selecting Non-medical Caregivers

-- NAHC Legislative and Regulatory Update

-- Stay Tuned for Another Update Tomorrow

-- About the Author

-- Permission to Reproduce

Welcome,

. . . to this special edition of Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report, the premier online newsletter for CEOs and executives of America's leading home health care agencies.

We're coming to you today live from the floor of the 27th annual meeting and exhibition of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice being held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Home Care & Hospice: Charting New Frontiers in Health Care

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Write press releases that POP! The opening General Session of the 2008 National Association for Home Care & Hospice annual meeting and exposition featured Judy Woodruff, the nationally known broadcast journalist from PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and formerly with CNN and NBC. As a 30+ year follower of Washington politics, Judy's talk focused on the 2008 Presidential campaign, and the impact of this election on our country. She posed the question that all of us must address: Which candidate will make the wisest choices with the economy, domestic policy, international affairs, and the war on terrorism?

"Although I can't tell you what will happen on November 4th," she said, " there are five fundamentalsthat favor the Democrats: "

1. Election Cycles - In recent history, one party has held the White House for two terms, and then is elected out. The exception was the Republican party under Ronald Reagan and then George H.W. Bush.

2. The popularity of the President - President Bush's popularity is in the same range as President Nixon.

3. Enthusiasm and Energy - the Democrats seemed to have this going for them until Sarah Palin was introduced as the Vice Presidential nominee.

4. Constituencies - and two important constituencies that favor Democrats are Hispanics and younger voters. "The younger generation is turned on and tuned in."

5. Money - "For a change, the Democrats have raised more money."

"One fundamental that favors the Republicans," said Woodruff, "is the fact that McCain locked up the nomination early and has had more time to get organized while the Democrats were still selecting a nominee."

She also pointed out that the election will be decided by the 10% of the population who have not yet decided, and some of them won't vote. "This election is about Obama," she said. "He has to persuade the people that he is the person who can lead the country. With the four fundamentals in place, you would have expected him to have done much better much earlier. A lot can happen in three weeks."

With regard to home health care, both candidates are clearly in favor of home care. Yet, their approaches to solving the nation's health care problem are starkly different, and the voters will have to decide which approach they think is better.

During the question and answer session that followed her remarks there were several questions about Woodruff's thoughts on nationalized healthcare and socialized medicine. When one questioner asked about socialized medicine, she responded that neither of the candidates is advocating a European type of nationalized healthcare system.

NAHC and Cerner/Beyond Now Present Home Care Innovation Award

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Val Halamandaris, President of NAHC, and John Landis, representing Cerner/Beyond Now, presented the 2008 Home Care Innovation Award to Baptist Home Health Network in Little Rock, Arkansas. The award was presented to the agency, along with a $10,000 cash award, for their "2020 Health Solutions" program which focused on addressing the increase of chronic illness in Little Rock. The agency conducted a visioning process to examine the impact of chronic illness in their community, and how their home health agency could be part of the solution. The award was accepted by Beth Hennessey, Director of the agency, and members of her home health team.

Join us in Baltimore for The Academy for Home Care Sales and Marketing

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November 5, 2008 - Columbia, Maryland

Sponsored by Maryland National Capital Homecare Association

If you are on the east coast of the United States, you'll want to consider attending or sending members of your sales and marketing team to our upcoming Academy for Home Care Sales and Marketing in Columbia, Maryland, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

This full day event will feature Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care, presenting the techniques proven to sell more home health care and non-medical home care services.

The future is bright for home care, but competition is growing. Your ability to differentiate your company through skilled sales and creative marketing is more important now than ever.

Teleseminar - Recruiting and Selecting Non-medical Caregivers

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The biggest barrier to growing your private duty home care business is finding enough caregivers to meet your growth goals. Once you find them, you need to keep them.

Stephen Tweed has just completed the single largest research study ever conducted in our industry to discover the best methods to recruit caregivers. Stephen will be sharing the results of this survey, and describing in detail how you can apply these top techniques to get the people you need to grow your business.

Stephen will share with listeners the results of the industry leading research. You won't want to miss out on this opportunity to grow your Private Duty Home Care business.

Finding and Selecting the Caregivers You Need in Non-medical Home Care

Tuesday, October 21, 2008
2:00 pm Eastern, 1:00 pm Central, 11:00 am Pacific

NAHC Legislative and Regulatory Update

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A highlight of the opening general session at NAHC is always the legislative and regulatory update presented by the NAHC leadership team. Although somewhat abbreviated because of time, the team gave us a timely and effective presentation of the major issues in each are of legislative and regulatory affairs.

Mary St. Pierre, Vice President for Regulatory Affairs discussed five issues we need to prepare for:

Coming changes to CMS payment rates
Expansion of the Recovery Audit Contractor program
The next iteration of OASIS coming in 2010
The Post Acute Care Demonstration Project
Pay for Performance

Janet Neigh, Vice President for Hospice Programs, discussed three major issues facing hospice:

CMS cutting reimbursement
MedPac focusing on hospice
OIG examing three issues related to hospice

- Hospice in Skilled Nursing Facilities

- Physician billing for both Part A and Part B at the same time

- Trends in Hospice Utilization

Amanda Thomas, Director of Research, reported on the Home Health Mileage Study, and reported that home health, hospice, and private duty drove 4.8 billion miles last year making 4.2 million visits, or about 11.2 miles per visit. She also reported on a Hospice Patient Satisfaction Survey, and a Hospice Bereavement Survey. Amanda is organizing a research council to guide future research projects at NAHC.

Richard Brenner, Deputy Director of Government Affairs, reported on legislative actions that will affect technology in home care. There's a Senate bill (S.321), which funds Medicare projects for home monitoring, and a House bill (HR 6163), the Medicare Telehealth Enhancements Act.

Jeff Kincheloe, Director of Government Affairs for the U.S. Senate, commented that the Senate has left town, and that's not all bad. However, they are planning to come back for a short session November 17-19 and there is talk of another economic stimulus package. The Senate did reject home health and hospice reimbursement cuts, and is looking at how to address the physician reimbursement decrease that is coming if they do not act. He indicated they may fix the physician issue by using some of the Medicare Advantage overpayments as a source of funds.

Theresa Forester, Vice President for Policy, discussed both Presidential candidates' support for home health care and hospice, and their differences on overall healthcare reform. She also described how Medicare Advantage plans have been paid more than the cost of providing care per patient under the Fee For Service plan.

Theresa also discussed both candidates' emphasis on quality and efficiency incentives which will lead to pay for performance. She also discussed the emphasis on labor related issues and Senator Obama's support of government authority and unionization of home care workers. This election may also result in significant turnover in Congress, which will mean we as an industry will have to educate new Representatives and Senators.

Bill Dombi, Vice President for Law, described three big fights going on in Washington:

1. The Case Mix Creep Lawsuit. The NAHC Board has authorized Bill to file a lawsuit against the Secretary of Health and Human Services to challenge the approach the CMS has taken to this issue of shifting reimbursement case mix.

2. Fraud and Abuse - Members of our home care family are not behaving well as it relates to Medicare fraud and abuse. We can't let that happen. NAHC will be introducing a plan of action to preserve the reputation and integrity of home care and hospice, and "keep the bad guys out."

3. Chronic Care Management - the Future Focus 2009 for NAHC is a crusade for home care to move the future of healthcare in America by focusing on the issue of chronic diseases and how home care can be part of the solution.

Stay Tuned for Another Update Tomorrow

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We'll have another NAHC convention update for you tomorrow morning. The highlight will be coverage of the speech to the convention by former President Bill Clinton. We'll also have updates on selected concurrent educational sessions presented during the day on Monday.

About the Author

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Stephen Tweed, CSP, is Chairman and CEO of Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company. For over 25 years he has been a recognized leader in strategy and leadership development for home care companies and associations. He is the author or co-author of five books, four of which were written specifically for the home care industry. He has served on the boards of directors of three not-for-profit home care agencies, and has served as interim President & CEO of a $25 million homecare company.

Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of an adult son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.

Meet the entire Leading Home Care Team

Permission to Reproduce

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Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. Copyright 2008 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com."

Contact Leading Home Care

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email: stephen@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-866-209-5101

web: http://www.leadinghomecare.com

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