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Home Health Special Report - NAHC 2008

Live Coverage from the National Association for Home Care and Hospice

October 14, 2008

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In this issue...

-- President Bill Clinton addresses NAHC Convention Audience

-- Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit

-- Building Relationships with Physicians

-- 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.

President Bill Clinton addresses NAHC Convention Audience

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"It's not what happens to you that matters. It's what you do about it."

W. Mitchell

A highlight of day two at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice annual convention was the appearance of former President of the United States, Bill Clinton.

In closing his presentation, the President quoted my friend and fellow professional speaker W. Mitchell. It was through Mitchell that I first met President Clinton at the White House in 1993 when the Board of Directors of the National Speakers Association was given a private tour and had a brief meeting with the President.

W. Mitchell is a man who has suffered two major life changing injuries. First, he crashed his motorcycle into a truck on the streets of San Francisco and was burned over most of his body. His hands were burned off and his face is a massive scar. Then several years later he was flying a private plane which crashed and he broke his back.

Today, Mitchell is a man with only stubs for hands, a scarred face, and lives in a wheel chair. Yet he tells his audiences, "Before my accidents, there were a million things I could do. Now there are only 900,000 things I can do. I focus on the things I can do and don't worry about the things I can't do."

As I listened to President Clinton quote Mitchell, I flashed to my son, Jason, who many of you know from his writings. Jason is a man who can't even do 900,000 things. But he is still focused on the things he can do, not on the things he can't do. Like being a dad, writing a newsletter for private duty home care, and training a new Labrador Retriever puppy.

But I digress. Today, President Clinton was in Ft. Lauderdale to speak to the NAHC convention. He spent most of his speech talking about the current economic crisis in America, his view of the causes, and his suggested solutions. He talked briefly about healthcare. After a glowing introduction by Val Halamandaris, President of NAHC, the former President gave us Clinton's Third Law of Politics: "Always be introduced by someone who has known you for a long time. They exaggerate your positives and minimize your negatives."

America is convulsed by financial problems. President Clinton gave us what he considers to be the three causes:

1. Overly leveraged investments.
2. The meltdown of confidence.
3. Too much inequality in the economy.

He then gave us three things the country must do to get back on track:

1. Get credit back in the system and get banks back to work.
2. Fix the housing problem. (There are 10 million homeowners with negative equity in their homes.)
3. Focus on energy independence through conservation and renewable energy.

Some pithy quotes from our former President:

"A big spike in sales at Wal-Mart has been in home safes. People are taking their money out of the bank and keeping it at home."

"The economy is too dependent on housing and consumer spending for growth."

"We could put a million people to work making every building more energy efficient."

"Every home foreclosure costs the economy between $250,000 and $350,000. It's far better to rework loans and lose $50,000 than to foreclose and lose $250,000."

"We need to go back to loaning money the old fashioned way."

"We cannot continue to be the world's most competitive economy when we are spending 16% of our GDP on healthcare."

"America spends 30% of its healthcare dollars on administrative costs, and our nearest competitor, Canada, spends 16% on administrative costs."

"We need to focus more on prevention and primary care. Our system is focused on treating people after they are sick in the most expensive healthcare system in the world."

"This election is not about good people and bad people. It's about good ideas and bad ideas. We have two very interesting candidates who are caught up in a referendum on the economy."

Once saying all of this, President Clinton finished with this quote:

"I am basically an optimist. This country has been around since 1776. Everyone who has bet against the USA has lost money."

During the question and answer session, the President was asked to give us his advice. Here are some more gems:

"What you know is more important than ever before."

"Get to know people who are different from you."

"Never miss a high school reunion."

(Ironically, when I got back to my room today, there was an email from my Lock Haven High School Class of '66 Reunion Committee inviting me to a 60th birthday party for our class mates.)

"Advice to older Americans: Stay engaged in some sort of community service."

"Happiness is being in harmony with what you believe and with those you are in contact with."

"The good thing about being a Christian is that we believe in a God of second chances. I never met anyone who didn't need a second chance."

"If all I got was what I deserved, I'd be way behind where I am now."

Whether or not you agree with Bill Clinton's politics and morals, you have to give him credit as perhaps the most effective political relationship builder our country has ever known. After spending 15 seconds with the man face to face in 1993, I went back to my friends and said, "Now I understand how he got elected President of the United States." I was equally intrigued with his ability to communicate with his audience today even though I may have disagreed with some of the things he said.

Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit

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Join me and other leaders in Private Duty Home Care in Phoenix, Arizona, January 18 - 20, 2009 for the 4th Annual Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit sponsored by the Private Duty Home Care Association.

If you want to know about private pay non-medical home care, you need to be in Phoenix in January. You'll hear from a host of private duty experts and experienced company leaders talking about what works and what doesn't.

I'll be presenting a new program called, "Private Duty 2020: Are you Ready?" We'll be looking at Private Duty today, and what Private Duty will look like in the year 2020. We'll examine the "Three Pillars of Private Duty," and the Private Duty Business Builders model for the future.

You'll also hear from industry leaders such as:

• Bob Roth, Managing Partner of Cypress Home Care Solutions
• Lucy Andrews from At Your Service Home Care
• David Goodman and Frank Esposito from Companion Connection Senior Care
• Joe Jackson from Elder Care Advisors
• John Buck from Visiting Homemaker Services of Hudson County, NJ
• Vern Peterschmidt from Peterschmidt and Associates
• John Gilliland from Gilliland and Markette
• Kathie Smith from the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina
• Pat Drea from Visiting Angels
• Don Cummins and Risa Baker from Stoneridge Partners

There's no time like January to be in Phoenix, and there's no place like Phoenix in January to learn about Private Duty Home Care. Join us there!

Register today for the 4th annual Private Duty Home Care Leadership Summit in Phoenix

Building Relationships with Physicians

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"Before you can do good, you must do well." Stephen Tweed

As a leader in home care, you have a clear purpose to do good for your patients, clients, employees, referral sources, and your community. Before you can do good, you must have a home care company that does well financially.

One way to make sure your company does well financially is to develop ongoing, consistent relationships with referral sources. And we all know that one of the most powerful referral sources for home care is the physician.

You'll grow your company and do well financially when you master the process of Building Relationships with Physicians. Join me and my good friend, Dr. M. Tray Dunaway as we talk about the specific steps you can take to sell to physicians, market to physicians, and build relationships with physician office staff members.

This set of four 90 minute audio CDs was recorded during our best-selling teleseminar series. Since you didn't hear the live teleseminar, don't miss this opportunity to get the audio recordings. Buy a set for each of your sales representatives.

I guarantee that if you purchase a set of these CDs for each of your home care sales reps, and they listen to the CDs and take the actions suggested, you'll pay for the CDs in the first 30 days, and you'll get ten times the return on your investment in the first year. If you don't, call me and I'll personally send you a check for the money you paid for the recordings.

You can't beat that offer. Get new patient admissions or get your money back.

Purchase the CD set today with our Satisfaction Guarantee or your money back!

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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