News and Market Developments
McKnights Home Care: Resilient Healthcare Expands Hospital-at-Home Through Unique Partnership in Houston (2/14) - A recent partnership between Plano, TX-based Resilient Healthcare and IntegraNet Healthcare could create a new dynamic in the acute care at home model. Through the partnership, Resilient Healthcare and IntegraNet will together assume full risk of chronically ill patients, a model Resilient Healthcare founder and CEO Jackleen Samuel said this brings greater flexibility in home-based care and bigger rewards for the providers. The partnership offers two lines of care to patients in the Houston market. The first provides care coordination for chronically ill patients, including medication and behavioral health management. The second line provides hospital-at-home services to patients.
McKnights Home Care: Lessons From Tsunami Continue to Inspire California Home Care Owner (2/14) - McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse interviewed Sam Gopinathan, owner of a nonmedical home care business, about the evolution of the home care field. Recently, he wrote a book, Connecting Is Caring: Going Beyond the Call of Senior Care in the Silver Tsunami Era, to share knowledge he has gathered as a home care owner about retirement planning.
Home Health Care News: Home Health Providers Taking On More MA Business Still Operating in the Dark (2/13) - With the shift to Medicare Advantage (MA) in home health care intensifying, some providers are struggling with the operational adjustments required to adapt. Even for the ones that recognize the need for that adaptation, there seems to be inherent road bumps in home health-MA relationship building. To combat this, a major focus this year has been teaching every level of the staff how the business operates. Letting caregivers, nurses and other staff members in on the nuts and bolts of the business has created a strong and more productive environment.
California Department of Aging: California Department of Aging Awards Nearly $90 Million in Grants to Grow Home Care Workforce (2/13) - The California Department of Aging announced the recipients last week, who became winners by proposing innovative ideas and incentives to recruit and train home care workers and family caregivers. The grantees include for-profit and nonprofit organizations, universities and training providers. The grantees will use the funds to develop and scale training programs, provide incentives and stipends for completing training, offer career coaching and provide advanced opportunities for home- and community-based direct care workers. Direct care workers can include home care aides, care managers, dementia care specialists, activities coordinators and other caregivers. Unpaid family and friend caregivers can also participate in training programs. For additional coverage, see McKnights Home Care.
Home Health Care News: The Meteoric Rise Of Johns Hopkins’ CAPABLE Program (2/10) - CAPABLE is an interdisciplinary program that was created at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. It puts an emphasis on modest investments and short-term interventions to improve the quality of life and health of aging adults at home. Through the three pillars of CAPABLE care, caregivers collaborate with clients to increase mobility and functionality in the home. The program usually takes between four and five months and includes goal setting, action planning and recorded improvements for activities of daily living (ADLs).
McKnights Home Care: Find Opportunities to Partner with Medicare Advantage (MA) Plans, Experts Advise Home Health Agencies (2/8) - Senior manager for BerryDunn, an accounting assurance and consulting firm, highlighted that home health agencies must leverage MA plans and not avoid them. Home health can position itself to work with MA plans because of its value proposition: it is considered the lowest-cost setting for health care, it can manage a mobile workforce, and it can lower hospitalization scores.
Home Health Care News: New Bill Looks To Combat Home Health Worker Shortages Via Public-Private Partnership (2/8) - In a move to address the shortage of health care professionals, a new House bill — the Kentucky Healthcare Workforce Development Act — has been introduced in the state. Broadly, the legislation aims to combat workforce shortages by building a public-private partnership that will increase workforce training and education initiatives. The legislation would create the Kentucky Healthcare Workforce Investment Fund, which would be administered by the Council on Postsecondary Education. While the legislation is only happening at the state level, the optimal impact in its supporters minds’ would be for this to trigger a federal equivalent.
McKnights Home Care: SYNERGY Home Care Strengthens Referral Network with New Concierge Service (2/7) - SYNERGY Home Care and its more than 200 franchisees rolled out a new concierge service to ease patient transition from acute care to home. SYNERGY’s ConciergeCare offers a variety of services including transportation, medication reminders, light housekeeping, meal preparation and grocery shopping. As part of the service, the company will offer a variety of packages and prices depending on the needs of the patient. Home care firms are increasingly finding ways to provide enhanced services to patients, through partnerships with handyman services to acquisitions of new services, such as care management.
Home Health Care News: 51 Percent Of Home-Based Care Organizations Plan To Dive Into Higher-Acuity Care Models (2/7) - In 2023, over half of home-based care organizations plan to pursue higher-acuity care in the home for the first time, specifically meaning hospital-at-home or SNF-at-home care. The survey had nearly 300 respondents who identify as working for organizations that work in home-based care, typically in home health care or personal home care. Behind higher-acuity in the home, more organizations are delving into non-clinical home care services, palliative care and primary care in the home.
Home Health Care News: The Smart Way to Invest in Personal Care and Support (2/7) - At the Home Health Care News Home Care conference, Gary Bachrach, Executive Director of Business Development, Home Care Services at The Joint Commission and Vicki Hoak, Chief Executive Officer at HCAOA discuss the opportunities in the personal care and support space.
Home Health Care News: Where Hospital-At-Home Programs Go Next (2/6) - The journey of the hospital-at-home model in the U.S. is a compelling one. Much of it has transpired over the last few years, ever since the introduction of the Acute Hospital Care at Home waiver, which allowed health systems to provide acute care in the home during the public health emergency (PHE). Now that it has been extended, though, it allows providers that had not started on their programs to get going. Home Health Care News interviewed Dr. Stephen Parodi, EVP of external affairs, communications and brand at The Permanente Federation and the associate executive director of The Permanente Medical Group, to chat about the future of hospital at home.
Home Health Care News: Waud Capital Backs Post-Acute Care Veteran With $100M For New Home-Based Care Venture (2/6) - Waud Capital Partners has partnered with former Cornerstone Healthcare Group CEO Steve Jakubcanin to grow a business in the broader home care and post-acute services market. This partnership reflects the company’s strategy of working with industry leaders and positioning itself within the home-based care sector. In the past, Waud Capital has invested in Concierge Home Care, a provider of home health services that offers skilled nursing, therapy and primary care services.
Home Health Care News: Contessa Rolls Out Hospital-At-Home JV With Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (2/3) - Contessa Health has teamed up with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH) to launch VMFH Home Recovery Care at the Tacoma, Washington-based St. Joseph Medical Center. The Nashville, Tennessee-based Contessa specializes in shifting higher-acuity care into the home. On average, the company’s model lowers readmission rates by 44 percent and decreases the mean length of a hospital stay by 35 percent, according to data from Contessa. Under VMFH Home Recovery Care, patients receive hospital-at-home care, which includes clinician support and access to the necessary medical equipment. Currently, it is only available for Medicare fee-for-service patients, but VMFH is working to expand the program to include patients under other health plans. The program also will look to widen its reach and serve other locations in the future. For additional coverage, see mHealth Intelligence.
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