NAHC-NHPCO Collaboration Update: CEO Search Initiated

NAHC Report 

As the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) continue working to create a new, combined organization to serve, support, and advocate for the national community of serious-illness and care-at-home providers, the Steering Committee that is leading the effort has selected Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a national search for the inaugural CEO of the new organization. The position specification can be reviewed at on the NAHC website or NHPCO website. To share recommendation and/or express direct interest please reach out to Danielle Lafhaj at Russell Reynolds: [email protected].

Town Hall Meeting: The Steering Committee, comprised of Board Members of both NHPCO and NAHC, continues its commitment to engaging with members and stakeholders throughout the process. The third in a series of Town Hall meetings is now scheduled for 4-5pm ET on Thursday, April 25. This is your opportunity to have your questions answered by the leaders spearheading this process.

Additional info: For background information, a list of Steering Committee Members, and other details about this collaborative effort, see the NAHC or NHPCO website.

 

MedPAC Recommends MA Program ‘Overhaul’ in Report to Congress

McKnight’s Home Care / By Adam Healy
 
In its March report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended policymakers make sweeping changes to address serious, ongoing issues with the Medicare Advantage program. 
 
“A major overhaul of MA policies is urgently needed,” MedPAC’s experts wrote in their report.
 
The commission outlined several issues that have plagued MA beneficiaries and other stakeholders in recent years. These include limited information regarding the quality of MA plans, payment disparities between MA and traditional Medicare beneficiaries, a lack of transparency surrounding private plans’ use of supplemental benefits, and more. And as MA enrollment continues to grow, these problems may only get worse, according to MedPAC.
 
Quality bonus program flaws 
 
One of the most pressing concerns is beneficiaries’ access to MA plans’ quality information, according to the commission. While these plans currently use the MA quality bonus program to help consumers distinguish between plans, this may not be enough to promote informed consumer decision-making. Many of the program’s quality measures do not actually reflect beneficiaries’ real outcomes or experiences, MedPAC said, giving customers an imperfect or incomplete picture of their potential health plan. 
 
“To make informed choices about enrolling in an MA plan, beneficiaries need good information about the quality and access to care provided by MA plans in their local market,” the report said. “Congress should replace the current MA quality bonus program with a new MA value incentive program.”
 
Despite these issues, Medicare spends roughly 22% more per beneficiary for MA enrollees compared to those enrolled in traditional Medicare, according to MedPAC. A significant portion of this money helps fund nonmedical supplemental benefits, which include in-home supportive services, but there is little transparency surrounding utilization rates and health outcomes resulting from these benefits. And, still, providers contracted with MA plans often see only a fraction of the reimbursement that they would have otherwise received from traditional Medicare for their services…

Read Full Article

 

Congress Passes $1.2T Spending Bill that Includes HHS Funding

Modern Healthcare / By Michael McAuliff
 
Congress passed the final measure early Saturday morning funding Health and Human Services Department operations, among other government programs, for the remainder of the fiscal year.
 
Congress struggled for months to move the 12 annual appropriations bills it is supposed to pass by Sept. 30 every year. Having missed the regular deadline, it repeatedly passed stopgap funding bills to keep the government open.
 
The final bill passed at 2 a.m., two hours after the most recent stopgap legislation expired. However, the technical lapse in appropriations had no practical effect. The White House announced shortly before the bill passed that it had "ceased shutdown preparations." President Joe Biden will sign the bill Saturday, the White House said.
 
The legislation authorizes $1.2 trillion to fund about 70% of the federal government, including $117 billion for HHS operations. President Joe Biden signed a separate fiscal 2024 measure March 9 covering the rest of the federal government. 
 
Congress must now begin work on appropriations for the 2025 fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1, just weeks before the November elections.

 

Providers Applaud Long-Awaited Update to Older Americans Act Programs

McKnight’s Home Care / By Adam Healy
 
After a decades-long wait, home care providers will soon be able to take advantage of new senior care resources made available by sweeping updates to the Older Americans Act.
“Bold investments in the OAA infrastructure and the services supported by it are essential,” Katie Smith Sloan, president and chief executive officer of LeadingAge, said in a letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on March 21. “We are already desperately behind in prioritizing the needs of our aging population.”
 
In February, the Administration for Community Living finalized a rule to modernize the OAA — the first major change made to the legislation in more than 35 years, according to the ACL. Among its provisions, the rule made permanent various flexibilities instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic, including carry-out meals for seniors. The rule’s main priority, according to ACL, is to help seniors receive enough support to age comfortably at home and in their communities…

Read Full Article

 

Home Care Unionization Efforts Beginning To Tick Back Up

Home Health Care News / By Andrew Donlan
 
The home care workforce has traditionally been a tough one to organize. But efforts have ramped up over recent years, leading to more workers opting into unions across the country. 
 
Recently, University of Rochester Medicine Home Care (URMHC) workers “overwhelmingly” chose to join a labor union. They aligned themselves with 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which is one of the largest health care worker unions in the country. 
 
About 115 URMHC workers – across multiple counties – will now join the union, looking for better pay, working conditions and more say in day-to-day operations. 
 
More broadly, after a strike at the University of Rochester Medical Center last year, more than 1,600 home health aides and personal care attendants joined unions in Rochester and in the broader New York State, according to FingerLakes1.com. 
 
Unionization in home care 
 
Because home care workers are remote, they remain one or the least unionized groups of health care professionals in the country. 
 
“We don’t want this kind of third party interference between employers and employees, but there’s a tension that’s happening in this system,” Denise Delcore, then a part of the law firm Polsinelli, said in 2022. “Home care providers have had greater challenges than we’ve ever seen before. As employees are struggling to deal with those — particularly in the wake of COVID — there’s a renewed effort to organize this industry.”
 
Part of what URMHC workers want out of unionization is better pay, which is a problem for most home-based care providers that accept Medicaid or Medicare. 
 
While providers do set wage rates, those wages are largely determined by reimbursement from state-sponsored programs. Therefore, leaders may want to raise wages, but don’t always have the vehicle to do so…

Read Full Article

 
<< first < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > last >>

Page 1 of 338