Home Care May Have Reached Its ‘Tipping Point’ With Billing Rates
Home Health Care News | By Joyce Famakinwa
As home care leaders begin to strategize for 2024, part of the process will be identifying the challenges they believe will be main characters next year.
Oftentimes, home care leaders will point to labor as the biggest challenge in the space.
While labor is and will continue to be an issue, there are also other obstacles that are top of mind for many home care leaders, such as regulatory challenges.
Though the majority of Home Helpers’ business is private-pay, the company has experience working with third-party payer sources as well. President and CEO Emma Dickison advises companies that are working in this space to prepare themselves for problems derived from regulation.
“[Regulatory challenges] are always existing, it doesn’t matter which administration,” she said during a recent Home Health Care News webinar. “There are always regulatory challenges, reimbursement discussions and considerations for anyone who is doing work with third-party payer sources.”
One 2023 challenge that industry insiders believe will follow providers into 2024 is client retention.
This is because of the cost of doing business. And, as a result, the price tag attached to care billing rates. Daniel Gottschalk, co-CEO of Family Tree Private Care, thinks that the home care industry has reached its tipping point.
“We’ve probably reached the tipping point of what consumers can actually bear, before they can just say, ‘Hey, enough’s enough, I can’t afford this option anymore,’” he said during the webinar…
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Long COVID: New Info on Who Is Most Likely to Get It
Medscape | By Solarina Ho
The COVID-10 pandemic may no longer be a global public health emergency, but millions continue to struggle with the aftermath: Long COVID. New research and clinical anecdotes suggest that certain individuals are more likely to be afflicted by the condition, nearly 4 years after the virus emerged.
People with a history of allergies, anxiety or depression, arthritis, and autoimmune diseases and women are among those who appear more vulnerable to developing long COVID, said doctors who specialize in treating the condition.
Many patients with long COVID struggle with debilitating fatigue, brain fog, and cognitive impairment. The condition is also characterized by a catalog of other symptoms that may be difficult to recognize as long COVID, experts said. That's especially true when patients may not mention seemingly unrelated information, such as underlying health conditions that might make them more vulnerable. This makes screening for certain conditions and investigating every symptom especially important.
The severity of a patient's initial infection is not the only determining factor for developing long COVID, experts said.
"Don't judge the person based on how sick they were initially," said Mark Bayley, MD, medical director of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute at University Health Network and a professor with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. "You have to evaluate every symptom as best you can to make sure you're not missing anything else."
Someone who only had a bad cough or felt really unwell for just a few days and recovered but started feeling rotten again later — "that's the person that we are seeing for long COVID," said Bayley…
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CDC Urges Nursing Home Vaccinations
The Hill | By Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi
Its’ the height of respiratory virus season, but some of the country’s most vulnerable people remain at risk.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most nursing home residents haven’t received an updated COVID-19 vaccine or the new respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine.
COVID-19, influenza and RSV activity are still below levels seen last year at this time, according to the CDC. But only 35 percent of nursing home residents have gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine, and just 10 percent had received an RSV shot.
RSV can cause severe illness and death in older adults. The Food and Drug Administration estimated that the virus hospitalizes 60,000 to 160,000 people over age 65 each year and causes 6,000 to 10,000 deaths.
This is the first year there’s been a vaccine available to prevent RSV– and there are two on the market. Arexvy, the shot from GlaxoSmithKline, was 94 percent effective against severe illness in older adults. Pfizer’s shot, called Abrysvo, was 86 percent effective against severe illness.
Both shots are fully covered by Medicaid, Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, and most private insurance plans.
Nursing homes are encouraged to collaborate with state, local and federal public health and long-term care pharmacy partners to address barriers contributing to low vaccination coverage, CDC said.
Vaccine fatigue, inaccurate health information and vaccine hesitancy contribute to lack of vaccine demand, the CDC said.
For the COVID-19 vaccine, lower uptake might be related to challenges to vaccine access, as well as cost and payment barriers associated with the vaccine’s commercialization, the agency said.
Older people are also receiving messaging for multiple seasonal vaccines (in many cases three or four), and it can be overwhelming. The relative newness of the RSV shots may also confuse providers, who then give inaccurate information to their patients.
Another possible barrier is the CDC’s recommendation of “shared decision making.” That means the vaccine was recommended only after a conversation between a patient and their provider, rather than a blanket recommendation like the one for flu shots. |
SLAPP Back: Colorado Court of Appeals Addresses Protection Against “Vengeful” Online Posts
Littler | By Danielle Van Katwyk and Steve Baumann
On November 30, 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals in Tender Care v. Barnett tested the limits of Colorado’s anti-SLAPP law in considering whether an individual’s online review of a company could invoke the protections of the anti-SLAPP law. A client of a veterinary clinic had posted six online reviews on her personal Facebook page, the company’s Facebook page, and four different community-based Facebook pages, asserting that the veterinary clinic engaged in “malpractice,” and employs “incompetent” and “dishonest” doctors and staff. The clinic had filed suit for defamation per se, and the individual posting about her experience filed a special motion to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP law.
“SLAPP” stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. While California has had a SLAPP statute in place for quite some time, Colorado only recently enacted an anti-SLAPP statute in 2019, section 13-20-1101, C.R.S. Colorado’s statute. Like California’s statute before it, Colorado’s version is intended to protect the right to free speech and petition, and to prohibit the filing of non-meritorious lawsuits merely aimed to silence critics. Colorado’s anti-SLAPP law allows defendants to file a “special motion to dismiss” based on the right of free speech or petition in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest. Defendants must file the special motion within 63 days after service of the complaint unless a later filing date is deemed proper by the court, and a hearing will typically be scheduled within 28 days after service of the special motion. Such motions will be granted unless the plaintiff establishes a “reasonable likelihood” of success on the claim, in which case the matter proceeds as normal. In making its determination, the court will consider the pleadings and supporting and opposing affidavits stating the facts upon which the liability or defense is based…
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