Dear Healthcare at Home Colleague,
The Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice conducts an excellent annual meeting. I want to publicly thank them for inviting me to address their members this week. I met some dedicated agency owners and personnel, some of whom told me they have been serving patients in their homes for over 30 years. I introduced my presentation with my take on the plight of the entire healthcare at home community here in the early years of healthcare reform. I thought you might enjoy the introduction portion as much as they did in Columbus so it appears in this week's issue as an opinion piece. Click on the headline below, "Why Does Healthcare at Home Hide Its Light Under a Bushel Basket?" After you read it, please let me know if you agree or disagree.
A webinar set for Thursday, September 24 will help you with a problem that everyone experiences. “Why Staff Leave and How To Keep Them” is the title of a presentation by Eric Scharber of Exact Recruiting. To register for this free webinar, click here.
While in Columbus this week, I picked up a tip from Healthcare Synergy's Mike Deck. He has been hearing that CMS inserted a claim processing edit based on the faulty assumption that people being cared for at home never develop new diagnoses deserving of an ICD-10 code. No new pressure ulcers, no falls, etc. This means that claims that include an ICD-10 code that ends with the letter A, indicating a new diagnosis, the entire episode claim will be denied. According to Mr. Deck, CMS has agreed to fix it but they will not say when. We will continue to look into this for you.
In other news this week: Keep an eye Tuesday on the U.S. Senate for results of a hearing where executives from Aetna and Anthem will explain why their respective acquisitions of Humana and Cigna will be good for consumers. Guest author and industry analyst Wendell Potter explains the AMA's opposition to the two mega-deals.
Panasonic and NetMotion have announced a cooperative venture that will embed the Seattle security company's software, used by a number of healthcare at home agencies, on ToughBook laptops.
Don't forget that you can purchase accredited Relias Learning courses for a discount when you purchase them through Home Care Technology Report. Click here to create your account and start accumulating credits today.
Have a great week. Keep making a difference!
Tim Rowan, Editor